Don't Bring Me Down
by Rickii101
Summary: Camilla De Luca wakes up to what she thinks is just another normal day in her mundane life in Georgia. She was dead wrong. The apocalypse has started and she must try to survive in a world where the dead walk and everyday could be her last.DarylOC M Later
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead or anything else that you might recognize except for the De Luca's.

I would like to thank Mzzvirgo and firechildslytherin5 for proofreading this chapter!

A/N: I have posted new pictures of what some of my characters look like along with Camilla's wardrobe if you're interested.

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I awoke to the annoying buzzing of my alarm clock. The sun shined bright on my face while I read the flashing red numbers. It was 8:00, why was I up this early during the summer? _Oh! Right! I had to drop Ben off at his friend's house today._ I had promised my parents that I would get up early so that I could drive my little brother to his friend's house. Apparently they were going to go on a camping trip with the kid's parents. _How fun._ I resisted the urge to hit the snooze button and instead shut the alarm clock off. I rolled out of my warm, comfy bed while rubbing my eyes with my hands and simultaneously yawning. I had been trying to catch up on sleep since I had just gotten out of school for the summer. I was currently attending an art school in Atlanta, something that my parents weren't too keen on, and majoring in Art History. I really did love it but this year kicked my ass. Thank god next year would be my last and I could finally make a life for myself. Maybe even get out of this little hick town, in the middle of Georgia, I seemed to be stuck in. My mother desperately wanted her little girl to live here with her forever but that was definitely not going to happen. I had been living with my parents all my life, never really having a shred of independence. I relied on them for everything and it was time for me to finally get out from under their wing and be on my own. _As soon as I get my degree and I get a job secured I'm getting the hell outta dodge! _I loved my family I really did but they could be so overwhelming sometimes. Especially my mom.

I got up off my bed, walked out of my bedroom and across the hall to the bathroom. I stood in front of the oval mirror that hung over the sink. I inspected my tan heart shaped face. I always loved my eyes. They weren't anything special. They were a dark brown, almost black, color. Quite plain in my opinion but they were big and surrounded by long, thick dark lashes. My mom always described them as doe eyes. Another thing I liked was my smile. I was blessed with full soft pink lips that many women dished out thousands to try and achieve and I had also been lucky enough to have perfectly straight teeth without any orthodontic help. Unfortunately my brother didn't have that luxury. I remember having horrible acne when I was in high school. Thankfully it's gone now. My face is relatively clear occasionally getting a small bump here and there. I reached for one of the small black hair bands that usually sat atop the counter by the sink and pulled my unruly waves into a messy bun and proceeded to wash my face and brush my teeth. I had to leave at about 8:30 so I wouldn't have a chance to shower. I ran back across the hall to my room and discarded my striped blue sleeping shorts and pulled on a pair of black jogging pants. I thought the matching sky blue tank top I had on was suitable so I left that on. I skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen where I saw my mom in her blue scrubs getting ready to leave for work. She worked as a nurse at the nearby clinic. She was listening to the news on the small radio on the counter drinking her coffee. I heard the newscaster give us an update about the strange flu going around Adel, the town we lived in. I paid no attention to it. I hated the news; it was never good.

"Good morning Camilla." My mother greeted me as I walked into the kitchen. I pecked her on the cheek as I walked by grabbing a banana out of the fruit basket that sat on the counter.

"Morning Mom." I leaned against the counter pealing the yellow fruit.

"I hope you didn't forget that you had to drive your brother to Kevin's today." She gave me a pointed look as she said this while she took a sip from the coffee mug she held in her hands. I looked a lot like my mother. I inherited pretty much everything from her. My tan skin, dark hair, and eyes. Even my short stature. O_kay so maybe I wasn't that short being 5'5 and all but still I wouldn't mind being an inch or two taller just so I could reach the top shelf of the cupboard without having to use a chair_. I guess you could say I was a younger version of her. In looks anyway. I was definitely my father's daughter when it came to my free spirit and quirky personality.

"No Mother. I'm not completely useless you know." I replied drolly around the piece of banana I had just shoved in my mouth.

"What have I told you about talking with your mouth full! And don't lean on the counter!" she scolded lightly while chuckling at the same time, her light Italian accent slightly slipping into her voice. My mother had immigrated here to the United States along with my grandmother and grandfather when she was about five so now her accent was almost non existent and you could only ever detect it when she raised her voice... or if she drank too much wine at dinner. She honestly made a horrible disciplinarian. She could never keep a straight face. Now my father on the other hand was a different story.

"I know, I know. It's rude." I stood up straight and held my hands up in surrender. I didn't think I could handle one of my mom's lectures on being a proper lady this early in the morning. I turned toward the stairs as I heard loud footsteps. Ben ran down the stairs dragging a giant duffel bag behind him with a huge grin on his face, his blue braces on full display. _I don't think I've ever seen him this happy at this time of day. He must really be excited for this camping trip._ Unlike me my brother was an exact replica of my father. His skin was lighter than mine and our mom's. He had light eyes, golden-green, and sandy light brown hair. I could already tell that he was going to be tall just like our dad. He was only eleven and already his head was up to my chin. A lot of people had trouble believing we were actually related; We looked nothing alike.

"Good morning Tesoro. Are you ready for your trip?" My mother asked with a small smile on her face.

"Yeah! Hey Cami do you think we'll see any bears or wolves?" My brother asked me excitedly as he sat down at the kitchen table. My mother already had a bowl and spoon in hand by the time Ben had sat down. She set them down in front of him and he proceeded to serve himself his favorite sugary, tooth rotting cereal. I had no idea how someone could possibly eat something so sickeningly sweet first thing in the morning.

"I don't know kiddo. I sure hope not or else we might not see you again." I replied jokingly. He managed to find the humor in my comment as he laughed into his cereal bowl but my mother not so much as she sent me a stern look. I smiled sheepishly at her in apology. She may not seem like it but she was very worried about letting him go on this camping trip without her there to watch his every move. She was very protective of her family especially her children. She may seem sweet and soft spoken now but if anyone caused us any harm or even tried to she would claw their fucking eyes out.

I finished off the rest of my banana and threw the yellow brown spotted skin into the trash bin that stood beside me. Just then I heard the screen door open and then close followed by heavy footsteps. My dad then walked in dressed in his usual attire which consisted of an unbuttoned flannel shirt over a white t shirt, blue jeans, and his steel toe work boots. He was wiping what seemed to be oil off his hands, most likely from trying to fix the old mustang he had out in the garage, with an old rag which I assumed used to be white but was now an old dingy Grey color. If you looked at my father you would never have guessed that like my mother he also had Italian blood running through his veins. Although he wasn't a full blooded Italian like my mother it was still there. His skin tone was the only indicator that he was half Italian, even though he was lighter than my mother and I, that and his last name was De Luca. Not a typical American surname. But even then people would always be shocked and skeptical of his heritage. He threw the old rag on the counter and went in to give my mother a morning kiss until he caught the disapproving glare. He quickly snatched up the dirty rag from the counter and stuffed it into his back pocket while my mother chuckled and rewarded him with a small kiss.

"Good morning Aida." He says while looking down adoringly at my mother. She looked so tiny compared to him standing only at about 5'3. My father's 6'2 frame towering over her. I always admired their love for each other. They had been together for almost 25 years and they were still going strong. I could only hope to find someone that I could share that kind of love with. "Morning guys." he directed towards my brother and I. Ben waved his spoon at him and shoved another spoonful of cereal into his already full mouth. I giggled at the thought that he looked like a chipmunk or squirrel. I greeted my dad and walked up to him to give him a quick peck on the cheek and a hug. I was definitely a daddy's girl.

"Good morning Scott." My mother said while looking down at her watch. Her eyes widened slightly as she looked at the time "Oh dear. It's 8:30 already. I gotta go right now or else I'm going to be late." She hurriedly washed out her mug and set it in the sink. "Camilla Caro, you and Ben need to get going too." she said as she scurried around the kitchen collecting Ben's empty cereal bowl and also depositing that into the sink. She grabbed her keys off the counter and quickly made her way around the room bidding us goodbye. She stopped by Ben's side last and gave him the longest hug out of all of us and she showered his face with kisses telling him to be careful and not wander off and always listen to the adults, etc.

"Aida let the poor boy go. He's turning blue." Dad said with a smirk on his face. He could see through Mom's facade. He knew how hard it was for her to let him go.

"Don't worry Mom. Everything is going to be fine. You know Kevin's parents. They'll take good care of him. Isn't that right Ben." I directed the last part to my baby brother that had finally managed to wiggle himself out of Mom's grasp.

"Yeah Mom. Don't worry so much." Ben said as he wiped any kiss residues off his face.

"Alright. Well I'm off. I'll see you all tonight." And with that said she walked out the screen door and to the garage.

"Alright Ben. Time to go kid. You got all your stuff ready?" I asked as I went over to where my old tan suede boots lay on the welcome mat.

"Yes! I'm ready to go! I'll wait for you outside!" Ben shot out the door as fast as he could while still dragging the huge duffel bag behind him. I chuckled again at his excitement. I pulled on my boots and tucked my jogging pants into them. My dad walked over and rested his large hand on my shoulder.

"You know I've made some progress on the mustang. You wanna help me out later when you get back from dropping Ben off?" The '65 Ford Mustang fastback. He's been trying to get that thing fixed for about five years now. It would be such a beautiful car once it was all fixed up. I was such a sucker for classics. I always jumped at the chance to be able to spend time with my dad. Like I said before I was a daddy's girl.

"Yeah I'd love to! I can't wait till that car is finally fixed. Have you thought of the color yet?"

"I don't know. I was thinking Jet Black or Cherry Red. What do you think?"

"Cherry Red for sure!"

"Red it is then, but we still got a lot of work to do before then so you better be on your way."

"Alright. Bye Dad! See you later!" I yelled over my shoulder as I jogged to the garage and over to the car. I realized that I had forgotten to grab the keys to the car. Ben looked at me impatiently as I smacked myself on the forehead.

"Hurry up! What are you doing?" He yelled exasperated.

"Sorry Ben. I forgot the keys. I'll be right back." I quickly ran back to the house and almost ran into my dad as I was about to pull open the door.

"Hey Cami forget something?" He dangled the keys in front of my face with a smirk on his face. I grabbed them and thanked him. I was getting ready to turn around when his voice stopped me. "Hey you think you can drop this off at the hospital after you're done with Ben. Your mom must have forgotten to grab it when she ran out." He held the small lunch bag out towards me and I swung it over my shoulder.

"Yeah I got it. See you later Dad!" I ran back to the car and unlocked the doors to the silver sedan. Ben quickly threw his bag in the back seat and jumped into the passenger seat as I got in on the driver's side and turned on the car.

"Took you long enough!" Ben said while shoving me lightly as I pulled on my seat belt.

"Oh shush! Buckle up."

"Yes Mother!" I laughed and ruffled his hair as he did what he was told. Unlike other siblings Ben and I rarely argued. We got along quite well. Maybe it was the ten year age difference? Once we got onto the road I turned on the radio but kept the volume low so Ben and I could still hear each other speak. I rolled the windows down as well since the air conditioning wasn't working at the moment. Something Dad promised to fix very soon.

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Ben babbled on about his impending trip. I was never one for camping. I think I was just a bit to high maintenance for that. I could get dirty that I didn't mind. I was just way too lazy.

"I can't wait! We get to build a fire and go fishing and make s'mores and sleep in tents outside and go cannooing!" He went on and on. I knew the kid could talk fast but this had to be a record.

"That sounds like a lot of fun!" I couldn't but be excited for him. Our parents worked very hard all the time so we didn't get the chance to have family trips like this. We finally arrived at his friend's house where I saw who I assumed to be his parents loading the car. They looked nice enough. I pulled into the long driveway and marveled at the huge house in front of me. Ben had his seat belt undone and was jumping out of the car before I had even come to a complete stop. He quickly pulled his duffel bag out of the backseat and ran over to the other car where Kevin's parents were standing. I put the car in park, stepped out and made my way over to them.

"Hi. I'm Camilla. Ben's sister." I greeted them holding my hand out towards them.

"It's very nice to meet you Camilla. I'm Stan Pierce." The blond man said reaching out to take a hold of my hand and give it a firm shake. "And this here is my wife Allison." he said motioning to the blond women standing beside him. She too took my hand except her handshake wasn't as firm as her husband's had been.

"Nice to meet you Camilla. That's such a beautiful name." Allison said as she let go of my hand.

"Thank you Mrs. Pierce. And thank you for taking Ben along on your camping trip. He's really excited about it."

"Please call me Allison. And we're more than happy to bring Ben along." I looked over at Ben who was busy talking to the little blond boy who must have been Kevin. They seemed to be planning what they were going to do first when they got to the camp site.

"Well thanks anyway. I haven't seen him this excited in a while." I called Ben over. He stopped what he was doing and ran over to me. "Alright Ben. I'm gonna leave now. You be careful, Okay kid?" I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a long and tight hug.

"Okay Cami jeez! You're acting like Mom." He struggled to get out of my grip so I let him go and kissed his forehead which he groaned at.

"Bye! It was nice meeting you all!" I waved at them and walked over to the car and drove to the hospital my mom worked at.

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It took me about 10 minutes to reach the hospital. We did live in a small town so everything was close. I parked the car and switched off the engine. I grabbed the lunch bag and made my way into the small hospital. As soon as I walked in I noticed the abnormal amount of people waiting in the lobby. The majority of them looked pretty sick._ I guess this flu was worse than I thought._ _I hope I don't catch anything. _It looked like the whole town was in the small lobby of the hospital. I walked towards the check in desk, where a heavyset, redheaded woman sat.

"Hi. I'm looking for Aida De Luca. I'm her daughter." I gave the nurse a small smile.

"Alright. Just give me a minute and I'll try to reach her and tell her your here." the nurse said with a very strong southern accent. She proceeded to then try and page my mom while I waited looking around the lobby. My gaze stopped on one guy that looked as if he was going to drop dead at any moment. He was very pale and sweaty, while his lids drooped, dangerously low.

"Miss?" I turned and looked at the nurse behind the desk. She can't come out right now but she told me to send you in. So if you just go through these doors and take a right and then take the first left you see and you should be able to find her."

"Okay. Thank you." I followed the nurses direction and I thought that the lobby looked bad. Well it looked about a hundred times worse in here. People were coughing, sniffling, and vomiting all over the place. It was disgusting and I tried my best to keep my distance. I eventually stumbled upon my mom. She looked dead on her feet. "Hey Mom. I brought you your lunch. What's going on?"

"Oh Cara mia! Thank you Dolcezza! It's that damn bug that's been going around. It's been like this all week. It's like the whole god damn town is sick!" _Whoa! Things must be bad if my mom just swore._

"Wow! What do you think it could be?" I asked. I started to get this feeling deep down in my gut. Like something bad was going to happen.

"No one here has a clue." She said with her hands on her hips. All of a sudden I heard a commotion behind me. A blonde nurse ran out of the room she was just in clutching a bleeding hand. She was freaking out. Screaming about the guy, in the room she had just come from, biting her. I frowned. That was strange. I turned and looked at my mother and she too looked confused.

Further down the hall another nurse this time started yelling for help. My mother ran towards her and I followed. The curly haired nurse was trying to hold down a women that looked like she was trying to take a bite out of the nurses arm.

"She died five minutes ago!" she screamed. My mother went to try and help the woman. "Her heart isn't even beating!" I looked over at the heart monitor that was attached to the pale women thrashing around on the hospital bed. Sure enough the monitor was not detecting a heart beat. _Then how the hell is she still moving? _I heard a shrill scream that I knew belonged to my mother. I turned to look at her and saw that she was clutching her left shoulder. She was bleeding. She had been bit. I then saw the woman lunge at the nurse and bite into her neck taking a huge chunk of flesh out of the screaming nurse. Blood spurted everywhere. Some of it even splattered on my shirt. My mom grabbed me by the arm and quickly dragged me out of the room. While we had been in the room trying to help the now dead curly haired nurse the whole hospital had erupted into chaos. _What the hell is going on?_ I had never seen anyone act this way. I saw nurses and doctors being attacked by multiple people that looked exactly like the first women I saw. They were pale and sickly looking. All of them had a glazed over look in their eyes. They growled, snarled, and viciously bit into people that they managed to latch onto as they ran by.

We had come to a stop. I noticed that we were now in the lobby. The same thing that was happening behind those doors we had just come from was happening out here. Except now there were other people entering the lobby. They looked like soldiers and in their hands they held huge automatic weapons. My mother quickly pushed me behind a pillar by the check in desk, where the nurse that had greeted me earlier lay with a bullet hole in her head, that effectively kept us hidden from the military people that had started shooting the people that were in the lobby. Even the healthy ones. My mother grabbed my head in her hands forcing me to look into her eyes. She had tears streaming down her face and it was then I noticed that I was also crying.

"Amore mia you stay right here and don't move or make a sound do you here me?" I quickly nodded my head while more tears ran down my face. "I'll be right back. I need to call your father and make sure he is alright?" I grabbed onto her as she was about to take off.

"No Mom please don't leave! Please!" I sobbed as I desperately tried to keep her from leaving.

"Camilla I will be right back." I had no choice but to let her go. I watched as she tried to quietly make her way to the check in desk to call my father. _Please let him be _okay_! Please!_ I hoped that she had managed to reach him.

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I saw her hang up. She started to make her way over to the pillar that I was hiding behind but then she stopped and her eyes widened as she collapsed to the ground. Her entire back was riddled with bullet wounds. I slapped my hand to my mouth to keep the loud sobs from escaping. I squeezed my eyes shut. _This cannot be happening!_ Tears continues to stream out of my eyes. I looked to the door that was about five feet away from where I stood. I had to hide. I managed to sneak into the small closet. I hid in the very far corner of the dark closet and I used it's contents to try and conceal myself in case anyone decided to look in here. The gunshots in the lobby had stopped as I heard foot steps making their way to the doors that lead to where the patients were treated. I heard the door to the closet open. Light flooded in through opening which helped illuminate the closet. I held my breath and stayed completely still. The man, satisfied with seeing no movement coming from the closet, closed the door and walked through the doors where gunshots and screams could be heard.

I waited a minute before I dared to peek my head out of the closet and check to see if the coast was clear. I saw absolutely no one in the lobby. At least anyone that was living that is. I looked over to where my mother lay and I ran over to her lifeless body. I gently turned her over. Her eyes were wide open. I small sob escaped my lips but I quickly stopped for fear of alerting anyone that I was here. I closed her eyes with my hand and bent down to lay a kiss on my mother's forehead. I squeezed my eyes shut as more tears threatened to spill over.

I got up and checked my pockets. I found the keys to the sedan and ran out of the hospital towards my car. I threw myself into the driver's seat and started the engine. I quickly drove out of the hospital's parking, not even bothering to put on my seat belt, and raced home.

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Italian translations:

Tesoro - My little treasure

Fem. Cara mia/Masc. Caro mio - My dear

Dolcezza - Sweetness/Sweetheart

Amore mia (Masc. mio) - My love

I hope everyone likes it so far. This is the second story I have posted here on this website and reviews would be greatly appreciated. So please review and let me know what you think. Constructive criticism would be great too! Also if anybody is interested in being a beta reader for this story please let me know. Thanks! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you might recognize.

I want to thank everyone that added my story to their favorites and alerts. It really means a lot to me and makes me want to write even more! Also thanks so much to the people that took the time to review. I really appreciate it!

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I pulled the silver Ford sedan into the driveway not turning it off in case I had to make a quick getaway. I ran out of the car and into the garage my eyes searching wildly for any sign of my dad. I thought that this would be the most likely place to find him but my heart sank when I realized that he wasn't there. I refused to believe that he was anything but okay. I had already lost my mother. I couldn't lose him too. Then I remembered Ben. I prayed that he had gotten out of town by now and that he was safe where ever he was. As soon as I found my father and I gathered some supplies I was going back to the Pierce's. Maybe they hadn't left yet.

I turned, ran out of the garage and towards the faded yellow house and relief washed over me as I saw the screen door open. My dad walked out holding a glass of water in his hand. When he saw the panicked look on my face he sat the glass down on the steps that he was standing on and immediately ran over to me and met me halfway.

"Cami what's wrong?" He asked, his brows furrowed in worry.

"Dad we need to go!" I grabbed onto his arm and dragged him back towards the house as fast as I could.

"Whoa! Wait a minute! What's going on Camilla?" He had pulled out of my grasp, but continued to follow after me, demanding answers.

"I can't explain right now Dad! You have to go upstairs and pack some cloths and anything else we might need. We need to hurry!" We were now in the kitchen and I was making my way up the stairs when I felt him grab my arm and pull me back down to face him.

"No Camilla! You tell me what is going on right now!" One glance at his face and I broke. I didn't want to tell him what happened to my mother, his wife. Not now anyway. I knew that I had to tell him soon but I needed him focused right now. But the worry and fear in his eyes made it impossible for me to keep it to myself any longer.

"Mom's dead Dad." I said, my voice barely above a whisper. The moment I uttered those words his hand dropped the grip he had on my arm, as if I had burned him. And in a way I had. He stumbled back towards the kitchen, disbelief and despair written all over his face.

"What?" He knew I was telling the truth. He knew that I would never lie or joke about something like this.

"She's gone. Dad I'm so sorry." Tears once again streamed down my face. The look on his face broke my heart. I knew how much my parents loved each other. They had a once in a lifetime kind of love. Something not a lot of people got to experience in this world. My father looked like his whole world had ended as tears welled up in his eyes which in turn made me cry even harder. I had never in all my life seen my father shed a tear.

"No." He shook his head head refusing to believe what I had just told him. "Please Camilla. Tell me that isn't true!" His voice broke slightly at the last word.

"Dad I'm so sorry." I shook my head. I couldn't lie to him. His legs gave out from under him and he landed hard on his knees as he buried his face in his hands and let out a heart wrenching sob. I knelt down beside him to try and comfort him as much as I could in this situation that we were in. Unfortunately we didn't have time to grieve. We had to leave town. Who knew if what happened in the hospital would happen here. We couldn't risk it.

"Dad we need to leave." I pleaded with him but he just shook his head and tried to pull away from me. I got up and clutched onto his arm and I tried with all my might to pull his huge frame up from the kitchen floor. It was impossible. It was like pulling on the earth, so I said the only thing that I knew would get his attention.

"Dad please trust me, we need to go find Ben!" He immediately went silent and looked up with his glassy, hazel eyes. It was like he had just realized that he had no idea where his son was or if he was safe.

"As soon as we find Ben you're going to tell me what happened." He demanded quietly as he got up and ascended the stairs. I followed after him. I soon reached the landing and looked to my left where I saw him in his and Mom's room. He was looking at something on the nightstand by the bed. I realized what it was that he was looking at. It was a picture of my mother that I had taken a year ago. We were at a family friend's lake house. She had been sitting on the dock with her feet skimming the surface of the lake and her eyes were looking off into the distance. The sun was setting behind her which gave the sky an Orange-Pink tinge as it cast a warm glow around her and made her hair appear to be a dark fiery Red. My father slowly picked up the frame and stroked my mother's image lovingly with his pointer finger and then he carefully set the picture into the over night bag that lay on the bed. I looked away, turned to my right, and walked into my room. I pulled an old backpack from my closet and started stuffing random articles of clothing, among other things, into it. I managed to fill the bag in less than two minutes and I was soon heading out towards the car. I threw my bag into the backseat and I looked towards the house to see my dad walking towards the me with his bag slung over his shoulder. We both silently got into the car and put the little yellow house that I had lived in my whole life, the only place I had ever called home, behind us.

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My dad was messing around with an old radio, that was kept in the garage in case of emergencies, while I was trying to reach the Pierce's. We were headed towards their house, which was on the outskirts of town and on the way out heading towards Atlanta. I prayed to god that they were alright, especially my brother. I pulled into the long driveway of the enormous house I had only just been to a few hours ago. I couldn't believe that my whole world had changed completely in a matter of seconds. I noticed that their car was still sitting in the driveway. I put the car in park and looked to my right to see my dad smacking the radio against his palm, but all we got was static. He looked at it hopelessly with a deep sigh and turned to look at me.

"I'm gonna go check the house. Their car is still here so they're probably inside still packing." I made to get out of the car but my dad grabbed my arm, stopping me. I looked at him puzzled.

"No. You stay here. I'll go." He started opening the passenger door.

"No Dad. Just stay here and work on getting a signal on the radio." I got out and he got out as well. "Dad just please stay here."

"I am not letting you go in there by yourself." I sighed in exasperation. I now saw where I had gotten my stubbornness from. I walked towards the, expensive looking, Black Saab station wagon and noticed that the trunk was still open. I walked towards the front door and my dad followed. We got to the door and I noticed that it was slightly ajar so I stepped forward and knocked lightly on the mahogany door. When I got no answer I went to push the door open but my dad once again grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"Stay behind me." He said as I saw his hand move behind his back. He lifted up his flannel and pulled out a big, black, heavy looking gun from the waistband of his pants.

"Whoa!" He jumped, startled by my outburst, and he spun around to look at my shocked face. "Where the hell did you get a gun from?" I exclaimed unable to tear my eyes away from the deadly weapon he had in his hand. He turned back around to continue walking into the house. I thought he just decided to ignore my question but then he spoke up in a monotonous voice.

"I kept it locked in the bottom drawer of my nightstand." He walked on cautiously, and I knew that I wasn't getting anymore answers out of him as he peeked around corners to make sure that it was safe to continue. I thought the outside of the house was magnificent but that couldn't even begin describe what the inside was like. It had high ceilings which gave it a very spacious feel. The colors of the walls and floors consisted of neutral colors like brown, black, and white. The only thing that I found wrong with it was that it was missing that homey feel our place had. I felt like I was walking through a museum instead of someone's home, with all the paintings hanging on the walls and sculptures stood at every corner.

I pulled out my phone and proceeded to dial the Pierce's cell phone number, which I had gotten from my mom's palm sized address book before we left the house. We heard ringing coming from our left and my dad turned to follow the sound. We walked into what appeared to be the kitchen and as soon as I stepped in a strong smell hit my nose. It was a rusty, metallic, and sort of salty smell. My dad walked around the island that stood in the middle of the huge kitchen and he stopped dead in his tracks a gasp escaping him. I rushed to his side and what I saw next made my heart plummet.

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I hope you all liked this chapter. Please review and tell me what you think! Thanks! :D


	3. Chapter 3

Here's chapter 3! I really hope people like this. Also sorry if it feels like the story is kind of dragging on. The other survivors will be making an appearance soon. I'll be posting pictures of some of my characters in case anyone is curious as to what they look like. The song at the end is called Bad Girl by Devendra Banhart. I wanna say thanks to ThisSideorTheOther for reviewing. It really means a lot! Hope I didn't disappoint and please review :)

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The first thing I saw was blood. A lot of blood. That explained the smell from when we had first walked into the kitchen. I saw and heard the phone that was held loosely in a small pale hand. My eyes followed the motionless limb and I found myself looking into a pair of blue eyes that were wide open, frozen in fear. It was Mrs. Pierce, or Allison as she had insisted I call her. A few feet away lay her husband in a similar position, eyes open and mouth slightly ajar. He looked surprised as if he had been caught off guard. That's when I noticed the hole in between his eyes. An image of the nurse at the hospital, from the check in desk, flashed before my eyes. I looked over at Allison again and noticed for the first time that her whole front was covered in bullet holes and blood. She too had a bullet hole in her head. A pool of blood puddled under them. The sight was nauseating and I felt bile rise up in my throat when my father pulled me away from the gruesome murder scene and into his arms as I shook with sobs. Ben and his friend, Kevin, were nowhere in sight.

Dad and I decided to look around the house for the two missing boys, but he refused to split up so it took us a lot longer to search the whole house. We were unsuccessful in finding Ben or Kevin, which was both good and bad. I was somewhat glad we didn't find them because that meant that there was a chance they were still alive. But the bad part was that we still had no idea where they were. We walked out of the house and sat down on the fronts steps for a few moments, trying to process everything. I knew we couldn't stay here long but I felt like I was going to collapse. I needed a break.

"Are you gonna tell me what's going on now?" He looked over at me. "What the hell was that in there? What happened to your mother?" His lifeless golden-green eyes looked into mine.

"I don't even know where to begin. I have no idea what's going on." I looked down at my feet unable to meet my dad's eyes. "I dropped Ben off and then went to the hospital to drop off Mom's lunch. A lot of people were sick. I think it has something to do with that bug going around, Mom didn't know much either. Then Mom went to go help one of the nurses with this patient, who had been dead minutes before, that was flipping out and she ended up biting Mom. After that everything just happened so fast. It was complete chaos. These people were attacking and biting the doctors, nurses, and other patients. They didn't look right. They looked... dead. I've never seen anything like it before." I chanced a glance at my dad and had we not been in such a dire situation I would have laughed at the current expression on his face. "Mom was trying to get us out of the hospital but when we got to the lobby there were people in military uniforms shooting everyone, children even. She tried to call you and make sure you were okay and to warn you of what was happening. She was making her way back towards me and then..." I trailed off as I relived that awful memory and my eyes filled with tears. "They killed her." I sobbed quietly as I buried my face into my hands.

I looked up when I heard my dad get up and start walking towards our car. I ran my hands over my face roughly wiping the tears away. He got into the driver's side of the car, which was still running, while I walked to the back of the station wagon and peered into the trunk and that's when I noticed that my brother's bag wasn't there. A smile broke out on my face. _They got away!_ I hurried over and jumped into the car. My dad looked at me as if I had grown a second head.

"What the hell are you smiling about?" He asked gruffly.

"The boys got away! Or at least Ben did but I don't think Ben would've left Kevin behind!" I replied so fast that my words mashed together, making it hard to understand what I was saying.

"How do you know?" He looked at me skeptically

"Because. His bag isn't in the Pierce's car. I saw him put it in there and now it's gone!"

"And what makes you think that they're alive now even if they did manage to get away." He was leaning back in his seat and rubbing his hands over his face, trying to hide the evidence of his sorrow.

"Because I have hope. That's something we can't lose Dad, We can't give up. Mom wouldn't want us to." I whispered the last part, afraid of the reaction I would get by mentioning his late wife. He brought his hands down on the steering wheel and let out a deep sigh as he tried desperately to keep the tears at bay.

"You're right. I'm sorry Cam, I'm supposed to be the one comforting and taking care of you, not the other way around." he said, placing a hand on my shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze.

"No." I shook my head and leaned over the console, in between the seats, to embrace him because honestly we both needed a hug right now. It was a hard task do to our current positions but we managed it. "You don't always have to be the strong one." I said, my words slightly muffled by his shoulder.

We eventually pulled apart and settled back into our seats. I looked around at my surroundings. Nothing looked out of place and if I didn't know any better I would have thought that everything was perfectly fine. I would never in a millions years think that the world was coming to an end.

"What do we do now?" I asked at a complete loss. How were we supposed to find Ben and Kevin? Where were we supposed to go?

"We need to leave town, it's not safe here. Maybe head towards the city."

"But what about Ben and Kevin? We can't just leave without finding them!" I protested.

"Ben is a smart boy, as is Kevin. They'll know what to do. Like you said before, we gotta have hope." He threw a gentle, comforting smile my way and I instantly felt better and more at ease. My father was the only person that could make me feel this safe in a situation like we were in now. To me he was invincible, nothing could take him down.

I looked out the window once again and stared up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set and I didn't think that traveling at night would be very safe.

"Dad, maybe we should just lay low for now. You know, take a break. It's getting dark and we've had a long day." I suggested meekly.

"Yeah." He sighed. "We should probably find someplace that's a bit more secluded." He said as he started up the car again. I reached over to turn the radio on only to be met with the Emergency Alert System. I had forgotten that the radio had stopped working while I was driving home from the hospital, I had switched it over to the news station in hopes of learning what the hell was going on or why the hell the military was here. I quickly turned it off, the EAS tone unnerving me, giving me the feeling of impending doom. I stared out the window again when I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, my dad inserting one of my CDs into the car's CD player. The sounds of Devendra Banhart filled my ears as I leaned my head back on the seat after putting on my seat belt.

I thought about everything that had happened today as I stared out at the passing trees and the darkening sky. I thought about Ben and Kevin and how scared they must be. I thought about my father. I worried about him handling my mom's death. I remembered when my grandmother had died how depressed he had gotten. He wouldn't get out of bed unless he absolutely had to and he barely ate, but my mother had managed to pull him out of that depression. My mother. I thought about her too. Her soft, dark hair and big brown eyes. I thought about the sweet Italian pet names she would call us. I think that's what I would miss the most. Her soft, gentle, soothing voice. I could always look at her picture if I wanted to see her but her voice I would never hear again. Tears rolled silently down my cheeks at the thought. I would miss my mother dearly but at least I had many wonderful and happy memories to look back on. I dreaded the idea of having to tell Ben that our Mom was gone. He would be devastated. I felt my eyes start to droop slightly as I leaned my head against the cold glass of the passenger door window. I was soon drifting off into a dreamless sleep, with the soft melancholy sounds of the radio filling the car's doleful silence.

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_I know it ain't easy  
being left on your own  
why did you leave me  
well I don't really know  
and why wait another day  
when a day won't change a thing  
please don't ever let me say  
that again_

_mama I ain't waiting  
I ain't waiting  
but I'm still holding on _


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks to ThisSideortheOther for the review! Also thanks to anyone who added the story to their favorites or alerts and I've posted links to pictures of my characters on my profile. Here's chapter 4. Enjoy!

Please review and Thanks! :)

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I woke up to the sounds of my dad cursing and muttering about the two-way radio that he had bought years ago in case of emergencies. It had been three days since we left town. We had tried going into other nearby towns only to find the same thing in every single one. People shot dead in the middle of the streets, on their lawns, and in their homes. Trash littered the ground, cars and buildings were on fire. There were no signs of life anywhere. Complete desolation. I peeled my face off the car window I had been sleeping on and wiped off the small amount of drool on my chin. I instantly felt a sharp pain shoot up my neck when I straightened up, from the awkward position I had slept in. Sleeping in a car sucked, especially in a small one. I tried to rub the pain away, but to my great displeasure it didn't work. I sluggishly got out of the car and followed my dad's frustrated voice. I slowly dragged my boot clad feet across the green, dewy grass and was lead to the front of the car where he currently sat atop the hood trying to get some kind of signal from the radio by smacking it and yelling curses at it.

"You know, your method there hasn't been working. Don't you think you should try something else?" He stopped what he was doing and glared at me.

"You think you can do better?" He hopped off the hood and strode towards me causing me to take a step back. "You fix it then." he said as he shoved the radio into my hands. I looked at him dumbly and then down at the radio. I wasn't a very handy person, the only tool I actually knew how to use was a screwdriver, I didn't know how to fix things. And anytime I tried to fix things I would screw them up even more. I was like the Anti-Midas, everything I touched turned to shit! "Well, get to it." he ordered as he walked back to the front of the car and resumed his original position on the silver sedan as he stared off into the many trees surrounding us. He seriously expected me to get this radio to work by myself? He never even let me touch the Mustang when I would "help" him fix it. All I did really was hand him the tools he needed and keep him company while he worked.

I walked over to the passenger's side and sat down sideways on the seat with my legs hanging out of the open door, my feet resting on top of the grass covered field we had parked on the night before, and started fiddling with the tuner. I went through all the channels, sending a message through and waiting for a response, but I never got one. I even wiggled the antenna around in hopes of finding a signal, but of course that accomplished absolutely nothing.

"Ugh! Stupid, worthless, piece of –." a loud, sardonic chuckle abruptly stopped my grumbling. I frowned.

"It's not so easy, is it?" Dad yelled over at me from his perch on the hood. I shot him a glare and rolled my brown eyes in annoyance. _This is impossible._ _The stupid radio probably doesn't even work._ I noticed that he had gotten off the car and was now standing in front of me effectively blocking the sun. I stopped with an exasperated sigh. I pushed my dark hair out of my face and looked up at him hopelessly. He looked up at the sky, squinting his eyes to shield them from the bright morning sun and said "Come on, we gotta get going." And with that he patted my head, walked around to the driver's side, and climbed in. I pulled my legs into the car and closed the door as he started up the car, driving onto the highway leading towards the city. I rolled the window down enjoying the breeze that came in as we drove. It wasn't extremely hot at the moment so it couldn't have been too late.

"What time is it?" I questioned while still messing with the infuriating radio.

"It is... 10:30." He replied, glancing at the watch that was loosely wrapped around his left wrist. It was a birthday present from my mom. "Keep working on that radio Cam. We gotta get in contact with someone." I sighed and picked the old radio up off my lap and tinkered around with it for about thirty seconds before I resorted to a more primitive method and started to hit it like Dad had been doing earlier that morning. I'd had enough with the damn thing. There was nothing else I could think to do but to take my frustrations out on the old contraption. Dad shot me an amused look before turning his eyes back on the long stretch of road ahead of us. He never really saw me lose my cool before. Like him I was pretty laid back and not much could get me riled up.

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We were about an hour away from the city when I abruptly stopped beating the radio, my hand froze in mid air ready to deliver another strike upon the device, when I heard a slightly distorted, and what I assumed to be, male voice come through the speaker. I quickly looked over at my dad to see if he had heard it as well. And he had for when I looked at him his eyes were wide and his mouth open in astonishment. He quickly pulled the car over onto the side of the road and shifted into park. He took the radio from my hands and began to frantically yell into it. He told them our location and our plans to go into the city and then he waited for a response.

**_"N... not... afe... Atl... anta not safe..."_** said the garbled voice_. No that can't be what he said. We must be hearing him wrong._

"I can't understand what you're saying! Please can you repeat what you just said?" He yelled into the radio and then paused. We waited impatiently for a reply, literally on the edge of our seats, but all we heard was static. The connection had been lost. We were both dead silent as we stared incredulously at the two-way radio, not sure what to make of what we just heard.

"Did he say what I think he just said?" I questioned, my brows furrowed in worry. I prayed that I was wrong, that maybe I had misunderstood, but I knew deep down that I had heard right.

"He said Atlanta wasn't safe... Shit!" He slammed his hands down on the steering wheel, his face flushed red with anger, the unexpected outburst caused me to jump in my seat.

"What do we do now?" I asked cautiously. Where were we supposed to go if the city really wasn't safe?

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Hope you all liked it. Review :)


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks so much to all the people that reviewed! I really appreciate it. It motivates me to keep on writing knowing that people are enjoying this. So here's chapter 5 and I hope everyone likes it :)

I don't own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters.

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Dad had decided that it would be best to just lay low and try to stay away from populated areas, like Atlanta. We parked the car in a field, similar to the one we had slept in before, that was beside the road. We were shielded by the overgrown shrubs and trees that decorated the sides of the abandoned highway. My dad and I weren't able to get much food, with the small amount of time we had, when we left home, so we only allowed ourselves to eat half a can of food each everyday. He had also packed an old forest green tent that I think was only used once. It saved us from some abnormally cold nights. And let me tell you, assembling that thing was not an easy feat.

It had been two weeks since we had to leave home and two weeks since we had made contact with other possible survivors. We were running low on food and we had yet to make contact with any other people. Eventually we would have to move and possibly go into another town to search for supplies, which was something I wasn't looking forward to. We had encountered our first walker, a week and a half ago, when Dad was teaching me how to shoot a gun. He said I had to learn how to defend myself in case something ever happened to him. Well apparently the living dead were attracted to sound. It seemed to have appeared out of thin air. It was a man, about my dad's height, with dark curly hair and deathly pale skin. He groaned as he stumbled out of the woods. The three of us stood still for a moment. Dad and I were frozen in shock and fear, the walker I'm not too sure. _I mean, could they feel emotions? Did they even have thoughts?_ We snapped out of it when it started charging at us. My dad hurriedly took the gun from my hands and shot at the walker's chest, but it didn't go down until he aimed and expertly shot it in the head. We dragged the decaying corpse away from our camp and burned the remains. Now we refrained from making noise or doing anything that would draw attention to ourselves.

Dad had finally made the decision for us to leave our camp to go find a town that we could scavenge for supplies since we only had enough food left to last us a couple more days. I didn't like the idea of having to leave our little spot. I felt somewhat safe here and the thought of leaving had me on edge.

We left early the next morning after everything was packed and thrown into the car. Dad once again had me try to contact somebody through the two-way radio while he drove. I knew that he was hoping we would get through to whoever warned us about Atlanta two weeks ago, but that was unlikely. I gave up after fifteen minutes with a defeated sigh and set the radio on my lap. The highway was deprived of human life. There were plenty of cars, some had doors wide open and some were turned over, but there was not one person in sight.

Our car ran out of gas about two miles outside of the closest town so we ended up walking the rest of the way hoping to find a gas station there, that actually had gas. Dad had managed to get the car off the road before it came to a complete stop. I had the empty duffel bag slung over my shoulder and across my chest while my dad carried the red gas container. This town was the same as all the others, completely desolate. I could practically imagine the tumble weeds rolling across our path as we entered the deserted town. I still hadn't gotten used to not seeing people, at least living ones that is, walking around. I felt incredibly lonely these past couple of weeks, despite the fact that I still had my dad around, but it was like he wasn't even there most of the time. The change in his personality was dramatic. He rarely talked, barely slept at night, and most of the time I had to force him to eat. I understood the change. He and my mother had this connection, this bond that was like nothing I had ever seen before. I swore sometimes they could read each others minds. It was like they completed each other, as cheesy as that sounds, but it's true.

"We should split up. You can go get gas and I'll get food and anything else we might need." I suggested.

"Absolutely not." He responded monotonously.

"Why not? We would be done so much faster."

"Cam, we only have one gun. What happens if one of us runs into a walker?" I hadn't thought of that, my silence said it all. "That's what I thought." I frowned. I was slightly annoyed that he treated me like a child all of the time and never let me out of his sight. I mean, I know it was the end of the world and all, but come on! A girl needs some privacy! We soon found a small gas station/convenience store after walking around for a few minutes.

"Okay. I'm gonna go get the food." I started walking towards the entrance to the store but was stopped by my dad roughly pulling on the collar of my white t-shirt. I shook him off and glared back at him. There was no need for him to be so rough.

"What now?" I hissed at him, my eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Where did you think you were going?"

"I just told you, I was going to go get supplies."

"And did I not just tell you we weren't going to split up?" His eyebrows raised expectantly. I sighed exasperated.

"Dad, I'll be like ten feet away, relax." He sighed defeated and waved me off, giving me his permission to go inside. I shook my head as I turned away and made my way into the store. It was dark and a foul smell hit my nostrils, making me gag slightly, but I kept going anyway. I scanned the many shelves looking for anything that would keep for a long time. I hit the jackpot when I found an isle solely dedicated to canned foods. I proceeded to dump as much as I could into the bag along with some toothpaste, soap, and other necessities. I then mentally went through everything and concluded that I had gotten everything we needed for now.

As I was preparing to leave I heard something behind me. A very familiar growl. I stopped breathing as I slowly turned around. There a few feet in front of me stood a walker. I let out a slow shaky breath, my eyes widened in fear. My feet were glued in place, I couldn't move. All I could do was stare at the grotesque creature before me, with it's rotting flesh and foggy eyes. The foul smell I had encountered upon entering the store could now be explained. It was a man, who must have been in his late thirties when he was alive. He was big, probably around 250 pounds, had a bald head, and his skin was a sickly gray. He bared his teeth as he snarled at me and I slowly tried reaching for a can from the shelf beside me, but the walker caught my movement and he charged at me. I quickly threw the can at him and it hit his chest, but the walker was unphased. I ducked as he reached out to grab me and he followed after me. I tried feinting to the right and it almost worked, but then I realized that I had stupidly gotten myself cornered between one of the walls and a shelf. As the walker came towards me I kicked him in the gut, causing him to stumble backwards, giving me the chance to make a run for it, but apparently I wasn't fast enough since he managed to regain his balance and tackled me to the ground before I could get very far. I landed on my back and the walker was now on top of me, lunging at my throat, but I succeeded in keeping him at bay. I was terrified and convinced that this thing was going to kill me so I did the only thing I could think of. I screamed bloody murder hoping to alert my dad.

"DAD! HELP! PLEASE HELP ME!" I held my breath as the walker's revolting, ragged breaths hit my face. Not a second later I heard gunfire and then felt the walker go limp. I pushed him off and hurriedly got to my feet. My dad pulled me into his side and held me close as we looked down at the now motionless creature. He pulled me along with him as he walked out of the store. Once we were outside it hit me. _I almost just died! AGAIN!_ I started to hyperventilate and sob simultaneously. I had literally been staring death in the face not even five minutes ago. Eventually my dad had calmed me down and we were now walking back to where we had left the car two miles away. Dad was unable to find any gas so now we had to figure out our next step.

"You see Camilla! That back there is exactly why we can't split up!" I hung my head and looked at the ground. I didn't even bother arguing with him. I knew he was right, but it bothered me that he wouldn't stop ranting about it. As if having a walker less than an inch from my face wasn't punishment enough.

Ten minutes into our trek back to the car and he was still going. He was starting to sound more and more like my mother with every word that left his mouth. This had actually been the most he had talked to me in weeks. I looked up for the first time since he had started his lecture, and stared ahead at the road before us. I saw something shine in the distance and I frowned, perplexed. I then shook my head, thinking my mind was playing tricks on me, but I looked again and saw that the object was coming closer. And it was moving fast. By now I had tuned my dad out and was completely focused on the road ahead. My eyes widened as I realized that the object was indeed a car. I stopped dead in my tracks, which caused my dad to stop also. He looked at me concerned.

"What's wrong Cam?" I was speechless, all I could do was point. He followed my finger in the direction I had pointed and soon his expression mirrored mine. He started running towards the car waving his arms around wildly, frantically yelling for it to stop. I soon joined him and it was now close enough for me to be able to identify the car as a jeep. It started slowing down and I just about cried with relief when it came to a stop beside us. The man in the jeep got out and quickly walked over to us. He was tall and had broad shoulders. His eyes were dark as was his short and slightly wavy hair.

"Y'all alright?" He questioned in a strong southern accent, looking us over for any injuries, most likely bite marks.

"Oh lord! You have no idea how happy we are to see another living person!" My dad exclaimed, closing his eyes and facing the sky for a moment.

"I can imagine. I'm Shane." he said extending his hand out to my father, which he took eagerly, giving him a firm shake.

"I'm Scott and this here's my daughter Camilla." he motioned towards me. Shane then looked over at me and reached out to shake my hand as well. "We ran out of gas about a mile that way." Dad pointed, in the direction we were heading. "We've been trying to find other survivors, but you're the first person we've come across in weeks. Are there anymore survivors?"

"Yeah, quite a few of us actually. We have a camp some miles away, up the mountains. I'd be more than happy to take y'all there." He seemed genuinely happy to have found us. The feeling was mutual.

"Yes. That would be great." My father beamed.

"Alright. Just hop in and we'll be on our way." Shane lead us to his jeep, I got in the back and my dad rode shot gun. We stopped by our car on the way to Shane's camp to get our bags and the tent, I grabbed my many CD's as well. I couldn't leave them behind.

Shane drove for about ten minutes before he turned right onto a dirt road that lead up to the mountains. He and my dad chattered away about their experiences since this whole thing happened. I had to admit that I was a little hurt that my dad was willing to talk to this guy we had only just met, but he barely spoke to me the past couple of weeks. I noticed Shane glancing back at me in his rear view mirror.

"You alright back there?" he asked concerned that I was being so quiet. The tears that had been welling up in my eyes didn't help matters either. I forced a smile on my face as I blinked back the tears.

"I'm fine." I replied quietly and turned my eyes towards the passing scenery, trying to ignore the hurt I felt.

As we rounded the final curve of the road, we were on, I saw a big clearing. I saw children running around, laughing. Men and women doing normal everyday things. I noticed a big RV and other vehicles surrounding the camp. The jeep came to a stop and we all got out. The other survivors stopped what they were doing and looked over at us, causing my face to flush. I hated being the center of attention. Everyone started to gather around us as Shane told them about finding us. Questions were thrown at us left and right. I started feeling a bit claustrophobic. My breathing came in quick, shallow, ragged, gasps and panic set in as my head began to spin. Next thing I knew my legs gave out from under me and I was on the ground.


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you ThisSideorTheOther and Jac Danvers for the reviews and everyone that added this story to their alerts! Sorry this chapter is so short. I will try to make future chapters longer. Please review :)

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My eyes were closed and I could hear people's words buzzing around me. I blinked my eyes open, my vision was blurred at first, but soon cleared as I focused on the many unfamiliar faces floating above me.

"Come on you guys, give the girl some space!" I heard someone say and the faces disappeared, replaced by Shane and my dad. _Oh my god, I fainted! What a LOSER!_

"Are you alright Cami?" My dad asked as Shane slowly helped me up off the ground and onto my feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit overwhelmed." I gave a shaky smile, my face flushed in embarrassment as I saw people staring at me, and brushed the dirt off my shorts. I was mortified. _Way to make an impression!_ My dad, after shaking some of the dirt off my back, stepped back.

"You sure?" questioned Shane, his eyebrows raised as he inspected my face for any indications that I was lying. I simply nodded my head, giving him a look that said his skepticism was getting annoying.

"Okay. Well I guess I'll show y'all around and then y'all can get yerselves settled." Dad and I followed after Shane as he walked around and pointed at different things out to us; like where we could bathe, set up our tent, where the campfire was. At the end of our tour Shane told us to make ourselves at home, he then walked off and did his own thing. Meanwhile my dad and I went to set up our tent; it was a lot easier to do this time around. Dad had reverted back to his quiet self and I tried to make conversation multiple times, but his one word answers made it clear that he was not interested in what I had to say, so when we were done I went to go try to introduce myself to some people. I saw a group of women hanging out some clothes to dry.

"Do you mind if I help out?" I asked when I walked over to them. The five women looked over at me.

"No not at all. I'm Andrea." The blonde woman said extending her hand towards me. I took it, shaking her hand gently before releasing it. "This here's my sister, Amy." She gestured to the younger blonde girl beside her. She looked to be around my age. "And that's Carol, Miranda, and Jacqui." She pointed at the three women respectively, who all smiled and waved.

"It's nice to meet you all." I waved at them awkwardly. "I'm Camilla, but you can call me Cami or Cam, either one is fine." I started to picking out clothes to hang and made small talk. They were all relatively nice. I felt horrible for acting like such a spaz before and I felt the need to apologize.

"Sorry about freaking out earlier when we first got here. I guess I was just a bit overwhelmed from seeing so many people after weeks of it just being me and my dad."

"Not a problem, Honey. We did sorta just pounce on ya." Jacqui smiled at me reassuringly, her mocha skin wrinkling slightly at the action. We continued like this for hours and after finishing with the laundry, we just continued doing normal everyday things, which was something I really missed doing. I never thought the day would come when I actually missed and even enjoyed doing chores.

Aside from the lovely ladies I also came across Dale, the owner of the Winnebago. He spent most of his time on top of the RV keeping watch. He seemed to be in such a good mood despite the situation and that made me feel so much better about the whole thing. I liked him even though I didn't get to speak with him much. Next was Glenn. He was a hoot! Seriously, the kid had me rolling on the ground in less than 5 minutes. He told me all about his encounters of being a pizza delivery boy; he had witnessed some pretty weird things on his routes. Jim was someone that meant well and he was an overall friendly guy, but he kind of gave me the creeps. I didn't know why, but I did know that I wouldn't be spending too much time around him. I also had the displeasure of meeting Merle Dixon, he saw me as fresh meat and took it upon himself to let me know who he was. He too made me uncomfortable, but not in the same way Jim did. Where Jim was friendly, Merle was... well not so friendly. He was belligerent. The way he talked to people in the camp was horrible, the man threw racial slurs and sexist remarks around left n' right. He was downright offensive and I wondered why these people put up with him. I made a mental note to steer clear of the redneck pig.

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As the sun began to set I walked around the camp looking for my dad, I hadn't seen him since I had left our tent earlier. I eventually found him talking with Glenn and that feeling of hurt came back full force, except this time hurt brought along some friends; Anger, Rejection, Confusion, and a tinge of Jealousy. I didn't understand why he refused to talk to me. We were all the other had. We were family, we had to stick together, but he treated me like a stranger. He laughed loudly at something Glenn had said. The anger flared, I hadn't heard him laugh since the day we left home.

I turned around and stormed over to the green tent, angry tears ran down my somber face, gathering dirt as they made their way down. I crawled in, sat down and began to dig through my fathers bag searching for the one thing that could bring me some kind of peace. I threw his clothes around the tent, not caring where they landed. I found what I had been looking for and I slowly pulled out the framed picture of my mother. I laid down on the blue sleeping bag that was spread out on the floor of the tent and hugged the picture to my chest, pretending that I was somewhere else in some other time.


	7. Chapter 7

So here's chapter 7! Thanks for the story alert adds. So I made this chapter a lot longer. I hope everyone likes it and that I don't disappoint. Please review and tell me what you think :)

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I must have dozed off for awhile because next thing I knew it was completely dark in the tent; except for the small amount of light that came from outside, which managed to penetrate the thin walls of the tent, casting a faint glow. I saw a shadow outside the tent and heard someone call my name. I sat up the picture of my mother still clutched to my chest. I unzipped the tent, pushed the flap aside, and a head of blonde hair poked in; it was Amy.

"Hey, everyone's out by the campfire eating dinner, if you wanna join." She gave me a friendly and inviting smile, one that you gave a small child when they got lost or separated from there parents in a store somewhere.

"Yeah. Just give me a minute." She nodded and retreated from the open doorway while I put the framed picture back into my dad's duffel bag and stepped out of the tent; Amy had waited by the entrance for me. "Lead the way." I smiled and we began walking towards the group of people surrounding the fire. "So what's for dinner?" I asked Amy curiously as we walked leisurely; the dry, tan dirt beneath us crunching, with every step we took.

"Squirrel." My eyes bugged out as I whipped my head around to look at her straight face.

"Are you serious?" I exclaimed, a disgusted look crossing my face. She laughed at my expression and nodded. "Is that safe? Don't squirrels have rabies... or something?" She simply shrugged.

"I don't know, but none of us have gotten sick yet so it must be safe, plus it's not that bad." I looked at her skeptically, but said nothing as we finally reached the fire. I decided to sit by Amy and Andrea instead of joining my father, who sat across from them. I was still slightly peeved at him for treating me like an outcast. I decided earlier in the tent, before falling asleep, that I was going to give him a taste of his own medicine. I would refuse to communicate with him in any way. _Let's see how he likes getting the cold shoulder._ I knew it was childish of me, but I didn't care.

Once I had settled myself, I looked around the fire and noticed some new faces I hadn't seen before. There was a woman with long brown hair, which was loosely pulled back from her face. She wore a light blue tank top. She was fairly thin and tall; she reminded me of the models that I always saw in fashion magazines. She sat beside Shane and Morales, Miranda's husband, and their three children, that I also hadn't seen earlier. A small boy, who I assumed was her son, sat between her legs, talking to the other children near him. I also noticed a man, that wasn't quite part of the circle, wearing a navy t-shirt; The sleeves seemed to have been cut off. It looked to me like he was in the process of skinning and cleaning some dead squirrels. I had the urge to gag so I focused my attention on his face and not his bloodied hands. I found myself thinking he was rather attractive; with his short, messy, sandy brown hair. He had a small goatee, same shade as his hair. I couldn't tell what his eyes were like from where I sat or the sparse amount of light the fire provided me, but I did see the slight scowl he wore on his face. His lips were pursed forming a thin line. I realized that I must have been staring too long, when he turned his head away from the dead critter in his hands and towards me. His eyes narrowed as he caught mine. My eyes widened slightly as I looked away. My face flushed in embarrassment as I stared into the small fire and avoided eye contact with anyone else. I could still feel his glare on me, burning a hole on the side of my face, and that made me extremely uneasy. I didn't know why he unnerved me so much.

Shane took the liberty of introducing my dad and I to everyone, to which they all answered with a chorus of hello's and nice to meet you's. I glanced over at squirrel man. He continued tearing up the poor furry animal, not even bothering to greet us, offer us some sign of friendliness like the others had, or even acknowledge our presence. I hurriedly looked away before he caught me staring at him again. Apparently I wasn't quick enough to escape Amy's notice. She looked curiously at me, her brow furrowed slightly in question, and I just shrugged in reply.

"That's Daryl Dixon, Merle's brother." she informed me quietly, so no one else would hear. "He's the one that supplies most of the meat we eat." I brows shot up, surprised. I didn't expect someone related to Merle would be so... helpful. Sure I didn't know anybody here all that well, but you know what they say about first impressions, and I had seen enough to conclude that Merle was bad news. Daryl didn't seem so bad though, aside from the ever present sour expression on his face.

I continued to look around at the people and saw that fortunately Merle was nowhere to be found. I had a feeling that he wasn't quite the type to come here and socialize, civilly, with everyone over dinner. T-dog, Shane had pointed him out during our tour, was quietly conversing with Morales. I noticed that Carol was missing. I frowned in confusion and quietly asked Amy where Carol was. Her face fell as she pointed somewhere to her right and for the first time I noticed the second, smaller, campfire. I saw Carol sitting with a little girl. It had to be her daughter, Sophia, that she had told me so much about when we were hanging up the laundry. There was also a man poking at the fire, Ed, her husband. Carol didn't talk about him near as much as she had about Sophia. She looked unhappy, not at all like she had been earlier that day. I had noticed the dark bruises on her arms, the ones shaped like hand prints, and it saddened me to see that even when the world was coming to an end, people still treated each other like shit in a time when we should all be united. A nudge to my shoulder pulled me out of my thoughts and I saw Jacqui standing over me, a paper plate with thin brown strips, held out towards me. I took it with a grateful smile and looked down at it. _This must be the squirrel._ I picked up one of the pieces, inspecting it with a critical eye, then brought it up to my nose and sniffed it. I heard someone clear their throat loudly, my head snapped up quickly. I noticed my dad giving me a disapproving look. I glanced around at everyone else and they too were looking at me with amused expressions. Hell, even Daryl had a small, barely noticeable, smirk on his face. I looked back down at the meat in my hand and brought it up to my mouth, taking a bite, while everyone continued to stare, waiting for my reaction. I chewed slowly and swallowed.

"It's not bad." I bobbed my head and took another, much bigger, bite as everyone burst out laughing and continued to eat their dinner. I finished mine with gusto, not realizing how incredibly hungry I was.

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After dinner, everyone dispersed and went their separate ways to their respective sleeping quarters. I lagged behind a bit hoping that maybe my dad would fall asleep fast so that I wouldn't have to talk to him. Nights were always awkward for us. I would hear him crying at night, while I pretended to be asleep, and then in the morning he would act like everything was fine. I didn't know how to deal with his, ever changing, moods and honestly, he was beginning to scare me. It was like he wasn't the same person anymore. I waited a total of ten minutes by the campfire with Amy, Andrea, and Dale before finally standing up and bidding goodnight to everyone. I walked slowly towards our tent, trying to be as quiet as possible, but Dad heard me anyway. He sat up and looked over at me, while grabbing his duffel bag.

"Did you go through my bag?" He held up the bag, frowning at me, as I sat down on the floor of the dark tent.

"Yeah. I wanted to look at Mom's picture." I shrugged, not realizing what the problem was.

"Next time you ask before you go through my things." He scolded me, sternly, as if I were a child. I felt tears sting my eyes, not understanding why he was so angry with me. I didn't do anything wrong. He never minded before when I would touch his belongings. He wasn't a possessive person. We had always had a very trusting and open relationship, but now everything was changing much too fast for my liking. It was getting harder to adapt to this new attitude of his.

"Okay." I nodded and laid down on the blue sleeping bag. "I'm sorry." I said and then turned my back to him. He too laid down without another word. I hoped that sleep would come soon, but I couldn't get rid of the lump in my throat. So I laid there, wide awake, for the majority of the night just thinking and fighting back the tears until finally the exhaustion won over and I fell into a fitful sleep.

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Over the course of the first week of living in the camp, I had come to really enjoy the people's company. Most were incredibly welcoming and made me feel right at home. I spent a lot of the time with Amy and Andrea. Like right now we were all down by the quarry; walking along the shallow part of the lake, our feet bare and our jeans rolled up, talking about the men of the camp. When they got to talking about Daryl, I clammed up and it didn't escape the two blonde's notice. They both looked at me with knowing smiles.

"What do you think about Daryl?" Amy asked, bluntly. I simply shrugged.

"I don't know. He's okay I guess." I didn't look at either of them and instead focused my attention on the ground as they scoffed at my response.

"Oh come on! Just okay? You had an opinion about everyone else. You have to have something to say about him." I looked up at them both and their intense stare started making me uneasy. I didn't want them to know that I found him attractive. I was starting to develop a bit of a crush on him and I hated it. I did not need to be fantasizing about some guy right now, no matter how much of a welcome distraction it would be.

"I've seen the way she looks at him sometimes." Andrea informed Amy, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. They burst into giggles, causing me to blush, which only made them laugh harder. They just loved getting me flustered.

"Oh shut up!" I reached over and smacked them, lightly, on their arms. Their laughter was infectious and I soon found myself laughing along with them. We composed ourselves after a couple of minutes.

"So..." Amy trailed off, waiting for me to give in and admit it.

"Okay! I think he's kinda cute." There. That was all they were getting. Both sister looked at me skeptically; I was a horrible liar. "Fine, I like him! Happy?" They both nodded, huge smiles across their faces. I rolled my eyes.

"He looks at you too sometimes. I've caught him." Andrea said. I whipped my head around to look at her and see if she was serious and not just messing with me.

"Really?" She simply nodded. My eyes widened, but I stopped my self from reading too much into it. Just because he looked at me occasionally proved absolutely nothing, other then him just being a regular guy.

"You should talk to him." Suggested Amy. I looked at her like she was crazy.

"No!" I shook my head and sat down on one of the many rocks on the shore of the lake. They followed.

"Come on, why not?"

"Because... he's always with his brother and I value my life too much." I wasn't lying. Daryl, like his brother didn't interact much with the other survivors. In fact I think he rubbed a lot of them the wrong way. In a way he was a lot like Merle, but a much more toned down version. Plus, he helped out a lot with the food situation, so he was tolerated.

"Then just talk to him when Merle isn't around." she suggested. I shook my head and sighed in defeat.

"Fine. I'll try. Let's talk about something else now." This only caused them to laugh at my sad attempt at veering the conversation away from my love life, or lack thereof.

* * *

Later on that night I took Amy's advice and approached Daryl while everyone was engrossed in conversation. He sat away from the rest of the group, fiddling with his crossbow. I could feel Amy and Andrea's eyes on me, but I tried my best to ignore them. I soon found myself standing a few feet in front of him and I waited for him to look up at me, but he never did. He ignored me completely.

"Hi." I said loud enough, to make sure that he heard me. He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me, his face devoid of all emotion. He nodded his head once acknowledging my presence, then he looked back down and continued what he was doing. _Not exactly the response I was looking for_. "I'm Camilla, but you can call me-"

"I know who ya are." He cut me off abruptly, without looking up from his crossbow. My shoulders sagged. I was about ready to just give up and go back to the fire, but when I turned around and saw Amy and Andrea watching I decided to try one more time. I felt that if I gave up I would be letting them down somehow, so I turned back around and sat by him.

"So, what are you doing?" I asked. He stopped and looked at me suspiciously with narrowed eyes.

"What do ya want?" Daryl questioned gruffly. This was not going as planned.

"Just trying to make friendly conversation. I saw that you were sitting here alone, thought maybe you'd like some company." I unconsciously held my breath waiting for his reaction, but he simply nodded his head and continued working on his crossbow. I felt awkward just sitting there in silence, by a guy who I didn't even know. It felt like hours had gone by before he actually said something.

"A screw came loose." He muttered.

"What?"

"A screw. It came loose. I'm tryin' ta put it back in, but I can't see a damn thing." He was obviously frustrated.

"Oh. Why don't you just try fixing it tomorrow?" I suggested. "I'm sure you'll be able to get it done much quicker in the morning." I reasoned, trying to offer some kind of helpful advice, even though I had absolutely no knowledge on any kind of weapon.

"Why are ya talkin' to me?" He had set his crossbow aside and turned to look at me again.

"I just told you. I thought you wouldn't mind the company, but apparently you do." I sighed and went to get up and leave but the rough, warm hand he placed on my arm stopped me. I looked at him in surprise.

"No. Uh... I don't mind. Just curious. I don't know if ya noticed but a lot of the people here don't like me much." He explained. That's probably why he was so suspicious. I guessed that nobody here had actually even bothered to try and get to know him, merely judging him based on who he was related to.

"Yeah, but I've also noticed that you can be pretty helpful when it comes to the food situation, so you can't be that bad." I offered a friendly smile, showing him that I truly meant no harm. He responded with a barely noticeable smile. From there we continued to talk well into the night, well I did most of the talking, he simply nodded and inserted a sentence here and there. We hadn't noticed when everyone had finished their dinner and started retreating to their sleeping quarters. I was completely oblivious to the strange and shocked looks we were getting from the other survivors, as they walked by and saw me conversing with Daryl Dixon. Talking to him was surprisingly easy after getting over the awkwardness there had been at the beginning, even though I had just met him. I felt no pressure to try and act cool or to be somebody else. I felt like I could be myself without fear of being judged. I was so engrossed in the conversation we were having that I hadn't realized how long I had been sitting there until I let out a huge yawn in the middle of my sentence. I turned my head towards where the campfire would have been, but was met with darkness.

"Whoa. Where did everybody go?"

"Went ta sleep most likely. It's pretty late. Ya better go get some sleep too." He said as he stood, holding out his hand to help me up. I took it gratefully and got up off the ground.

"Thanks." I said brushing the dirt off my pants. He nodded and bent down to pick up his crossbow. "So..." The awkwardness has seeped back into the atmosphere. I didn't know what to say. Was he just gonna go back to pretending I didn't exist? Was he going to pretend that this conversation never took place? Would he even want to talk to me again? "So, I'll see you tomorrow?" It sounded more like a question than anything else. The ball was in his court now. He looked surprised; like he was at a loss for words and I found that expression on his face priceless.

"Uh... yeah. Sure. If ya want?" He answered hesitantly. I smiled a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I was half expecting him to tell me to leave him the hell alone and to go bug someone else. But he didn't. He wanted to talk to me again. This man had a whole different side to him. I always thought that he was somewhat mean, cocky, and proud, but right now he looked nervous and unsure of himself. I found myself thinking he looked rather adorable, waiting for me to tell him off or something.

"Great. See you tomorrow. Good night." I smiled as I turned and walked off towards my tent. For the first time in a long time, I fell into a worry free sleep, with a small smile on my face.

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Daryl finally made an appearance! I hope you enjoyed this. Drop me a review and let me know what you think or if you feel there is anything I need to work on or fix.

I'll try to post up the next chapter soon. :)

A/N: I know some have told me that Daryl was a little out of character so I tweaked it a bit. I hope he seems more like the Daryl we all know and love! Let me know if there's anything else I could change. It would be greatly appreciated. :)


	8. Chapter 8

Thanks so much for reviews and story alert adds and to everyone who has been reading this. I'm glad that you all are enjoying this.

There's a lot more Daryl in this chapter! YAY! I hope you like it. Please Review :)

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I woke up the next morning, driving myself crazy with anxiousness. I couldn't wait to see Daryl; I felt like I was back in high school. I hadn't had a relationship in a while so I wasn't looking to just rush into one, but I was genuinely interested in getting to know Daryl. I luckily managed to avoid my dad, so he had no chance of ruining the amazingly great mood I was in. The weather matched my mood. There was plenty of sunshine, but thankfully there was also a nice breeze, keeping me relatively cool. People were already up and milling about, doing random chores. I met up with Amy and she insisted I tell her every single detail from last night.

"Come on! Spill! What did he say?" She asked excitedly, and a bit too loud if I might add, gripping my arm.

"Hush! Everyone's gonna hear." I scolded. She smiled bashfully and apologized. I waved her off. "It's fine. Come on. Let's go sit down somewhere and I'll tell you everything." I pulled her along behind me. _Oh great! Now he's got me acting like a teenage girl._ It was nice having someone my age and gender around to talk about these things with. We found a place far enough from the survivors, so that know one would be able to hear us, the people here were huge gossips, and I proceeded to tell her about Daryl. "He's not the horrible person everyone makes him out to be. I mean he can be a little blunt at times, but he's actually kinda quiet. He's... complex. It's cute in a way, if that makes any sense. He can be pretty funny too. He was telling me a couple of stories about him and Merle, getting into some bar fights, before this whole end of the world thing." I chuckled, remembering the one about Daryl trying to headbutt some guy and almost knocking himself out in the process. Nobody wins in a headbutt, he had said. I looked up at Amy and saw that she was staring at me with an unreadable expression on her face. "What?"

"Nothing." She said shaking her head, looking down at her hands. She looked back up at me. "I just haven't seen you look this happy... ever." She smiled.

"I've been happy." I defended.

"Yeah. You have, but not like this. He must have made quite an impression. You're face just lights up when you talk about him. It's strange... So, are you gonna talk to him again?" She questioned, brows raised in question.

"Yeah. He agreed that he wouldn't mind my company... so, yeah." I started to have doubts then. "What if he changes his mind and decides that he'd rather not waste his time with me? What if-"

"Hey now! Don't start that." Amy interrupted, abruptly. "From what I've heard, he didn't seem to mind you one bit. So don't worry so much. Okay?" She flashed me a reassuring smile. I let out a deep sigh and nodded in compliance. "Good. Now go find your man." I slapped her arm playfully and she tried to dodge my blows, giggling madly, at having flustered me once again. I did as I was told and scanned the campsite for any sign of Daryl. It didn't take long to find him. He was sat against the same tree from the night before in a similar position, fiddling with his crossbow. I slowly made my way over, taking deep calming breaths as I walked.

"Hey." I greeted when I was close enough for him to hear me. He looked up at me, a small smirk playing at his lips. He nodded in greeting and looked back down at his crossbow. I could see right through his little facade. He was trying to play it cool and he was doing a horrible job at it. My heart swelled with glee at the fact that I put him somewhat on edge and I was glad that I wasn't the only one suffering from nervousness. "So, how's the crossbow coming along?" I asked, settling down beside him.

"Almost got it fixed." He drawled. He maneuvered something, on his weapon, around and after a few seconds looked up in triumph. "Done."

"That's great." I smiled. "So what are your plans for the day?"

"Gonna go hunt, most likely. Unless y'all wanna eat some ol' canned beans fer dinner." I wrinkled my nose at that. After having to eat canned food for weeks, before we came to this camp, I never wanted to see another can of beans again.

"No. Squirrel sounds way better."

"Glad ta see the squirrel's finally growin' on ya." I laughed lightly at that, remembering my first night here and my reluctance at eating squirrel. It actually wasn't as bad as it sounded.

"Oh yeah! I love it! My new favorite food, right next to pizza." I joked and he smirked.

"So, ya wanna go huntin' with me?" Daryl asked after a minute.

"Really?" he nodded. "I won't get in the way or anything?"

"Naw. Ya just gotta keep quiet is all." He warned. I thought it over for a minute. I had never been hunting before. I didn't like the idea of having to see an animal be killed, but I would get to spend more time with Daryl. The critter was going to die regardless if I watched or not and I was more than likely going to end up eating it, so what the hell. I nodded in agreement and he perked up a bit, but quickly collected himself. "Great. Ya should go git some water ta bring with ya. I'll meetcha at the tree line." I nodded again and went to my tent to grab a water bottle then made my way to the water jug to fill it up. I saw Daryl waiting for me by the tree line and I quickly made my way over, not wanting to keep him waiting. We walked through the trees together, once again getting strange and appalled looks from many of the survivors, but I ignored them. "So where ya from?" Daryl inquired, looking at me with a calculating stare.

"Adel, Georgia, born and raised." I smiled proudly.

"Ya ain't gotta a southern accent. Thought ya might've been from somewhere else."

"Well, my parents are from New York. They moved here when they got married."

"Why'd they do that?"

"My mom's parents were really traditional and they didn't approve of her marrying my dad, so they eloped."

"Why didn't they approve?" The space between his brows wrinkled slightly.

"You ask a lot of questions." I teased, causing his face to redden slightly. He turned away and muttered what I assumed was an apology. "It's okay. It's not a bad thing. I was just making an observation." I reassured him, hoping to make him comfortable again. He gave a small nod, but made no indication of speaking again. "They didn't approve because he wasn't a 'full blooded Italian'. They were strongly against interracial relationships, which in my opinion is ridiculous. Love is blind, you know? You can't pick and choose who you fall in love with. It just happens." I glanced at him and he seemed to have a thoughtful expression on his face.

"My parents were the same way." He said after a few moments of silence.

"Same way?"

"Yeah. They believed people should stick with their own kind, that we shouldn't mix together." I frowned, I always found that to be a very narrow minded way of thinking. I hoped he didn't think that way.

"What do you believe?" I asked, cautiously, glancing at him to study his expression.

"Honestly?" I nodded. "I don't know." He sighed, looking conflicted. Nothing was said after that, Daryl was completely focused on the small critters perched on tree branches above us. I cringed every time one of his bolts met it's target, the poor things squeaking in pain, before falling to the ground. After about a couple of hours, he had decided that he had caught enough for today and proceeded to guide us back towards camp. We walked in a relatively comfortable silence, not having much to say, but enjoying each others company none the less. Not even ten seconds upon entering camp, and my dad was storming towards Daryl and I.

"Where have you been?" He yelled.

"I was hunting with Daryl." I replied, calmly. I didn't understand why he was freaking out and I was hoping to defuse the situation before it got out of hand. His gaze traveled to Daryl, who was standing beside me, the ever present scowl gracing his countenance. Dad's expression turned murderous.

"You were in there?" He pointed towards the surrounding forest. "With him?"

"Yes. What's the big deal?" He grabbed my upper arm roughly and began pulling me away from Daryl and further into the camp. That pissed me off. I was getting really tired of him treating me like a child, telling me what to do one moment and then completely ignoring me the next.

"He is not a good person and you're running off into the forest alone with him! Are you stupid?" He exclaimed. I realized that we were beginning to draw attention and I managed to free myself from his grasp.

"You don't even know him!"

"Do you?"

"A lot better than you, I'm sure!" He took a deep breath and I could tell that he was trying to not blow up right now.

"You stay away from him." He demanded, pointing his finger in my face, like a dog, who had left a surprise on the carpet. This only spurred my anger on even more.

"No." I said with a straight face, crossing my arms across my chest and cocking my hip out, defiantly.

"What?"

"You heard me. I don't take shit from you. You can't tell me who I can and can't be friends with, you lost that right a long time ago." With that I turned on my heel, leaving my dad standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face, and walked back towards Daryl, boldly grabbing his hand and leading him to a different part of the camp, far away from my dad.

* * *

We had been at the camp for almost a month now and everything was great, well except for my dad. Things had become even more strained between us after our little quarrel the other day. He continued push me away. I missed being able to talk to my dad. At least I had managed to make friends with a lot of people in camp, which was a surprise to me since I was never really good at meeting new people. Daryl and I, we had grown closer, since I spent most of my free time either with him or Amy. We conversed a lot about our lives before the end of the world and I accompanied him on many of his hunting trips, hoping to avoid my father as much as possible. I had even come to confide in him about a lot of things that had been on my mind. Like losing my mother and my dad's sudden transformation. I remember divulging stories about the day that the world went to hell.

****_flashback**************************_

"_And then they just shot her." I had just told him about my first time seeing a walker and my mom being shot dead by the military, as we sat on an old tree trunk. I hadn't talked about that day to anyone before, not even Amy knew the whole story. I was reluctant to tell anyone my problems. I didn't want to be looked at with pity. Daryl never did, he just listened and tried to offer comfort. I didn't even bother masking the tears that were streaming down my face, even though I knew it made him uncomfortable. Most men didn't know how to deal with a crying woman, Daryl was no exception. He hadn't lost anyone during the outbreak since it was just him and his brother; their parents had passed years ago. _

"_But ya said she got bit." I nodded. "She woulda died anyway." I frowned and glared up at him through watery eyes. _

"_I know that." I said through clenched teeth. "It doesn't change the fact that they just shot her down like an animal, no questions asked." He had the decency to look ashamed about what he had just said._

"_I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that... I am sorry 'bout yer ma though. She didn't deserve that." He put his arm around my shoulder in a comforting gesture and he let me lean my head on his shoulder, as much as it pained him to do._

_****end flashback***********************_

He wasn't as horrible as his brother, Merle, who I had come to detest greatly when he had directed some of is racial, sexist slurs towards me and then proceeded to hit on me after wards, but Daryl could still be a little abrasive and somewhat insensitive sometimes. And still for some strange reason I always found myself gravitating towards him, of course only when Merle wasn't around. That sorry excuse of a man was a pig.

I hung around the other women mostly and I got to know them all quite well. Andrea was one tough chick. She didn't take shit from anyone. Not even the resident pervert, Merle. Amy and I were about the same age, so naturally I spent the most time with her. We had so much in common; we could talk for hours. She was kind of like the sister I never had. Jacqui reminded me so much of my mother. They looked nothing a like but she was such a sweet woman and very soft spoken, but she had another side to her, like my mother. The day Merle had insulted me she, along with some of the others, immediately jumped to my defense and chewed him out for the nasty things he had said to me. Carol I didn't get to talk to much since her husband, Ed, controlled most everything she did. The poor, broken, woman rarely had a moment of peace. Lori, the one with the supermodel figure, was nice, but a bit stand offish and distant so I didn't talk to her really and I had a slight suspicion that she and Shane had a thing going on, judging from the looks they gave each other, but what did I know?.

Amy and I spent a lot of our time hanging out, down by the quarry. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. The water was clear; it glistened in the sun and the sky reflected upon its surface, giving the water a blue hue. The lake was surrounded by big, giant, gray walls of stone, making it somewhat secluded. It was refreshing to swim in on the really hot days.

* * *

I had nothing to do at the moment. Amy and Andrea were off somewhere having sister time, Lori and Carol were nowhere to be found, and Jacqui was talking to my dad. I had noticed that those two had been hanging around each other more and more each passing day. I couldn't help but feel some sort of resentment towards him for getting close to another woman so soon after my mom died. I felt like he was disrespecting her somehow. But then again maybe I was just reading too much into it and absolutely nothing was going on.

Everyone was busy doing one thing or another. Dale was at his usual spot on top of the RV, Jim was tinkering around with said RV. I was tired of just sitting there watching everyone and decided to, instead, go for a walk. I strolled along the edge of the woods surrounding our camp; kicking small pebbles, with my scuffed up sneakers, with every step I took. I could hear Glenn and T-Dog arguing about their stupid sports and whose stupid team was better. I don't know why they cared so much. Everyone was dead. Tony Romo would never play another game of football again. I always found it hilarious that men got so worked up over a game. I'd witnessed one too many incidents where sports debates actually escalated to physical violence, I shook my head.

Movement I caught from the corner of my eye called for my attention. I turned away from the current conversation I had been eavesdropping on and looked towards the boscage. I looked around at the camp, making sure I wasn't being watched, before I faced the trees again. I hesitated for a moment before I stepped into the forest, looking at the ground, trying not to trip on anything. It was much cooler in the woods, under the cover of the enormous trees, then back at our camp. The lack of sunlight resulted in a lack of grass. The rich black dirt was sparsely coated with thin, green blades. I heard a rustling again and I followed the sound; something that was very stupid of me to do, but I didn't really expect walkers, or geeks as they have been called by some of the survivors, to be wandering around out here. It wasn't a very populated area, despite the fact that we were still quite close to the city, judging by Atlanta's skyline which could still be seen from our camp. I continued to follow the sound and eventually ended up standing a few feet away from a cluster of small bushes. The rustling stopped for a moment. I froze mid stride and continued when the leaves from one of the bushes shivered. I was close enough to the small shrub to be able to reach out and touch it; against my better judgment, I did. As soon as I had moved some of the branches and leaves out of the way, a gray mass jumped out of the bush which in turn caused me to stumble backwards; letting out a girlish shriek, I had no idea I was capable of producing. There stood a small gray squirrel on all fours; staring at me with its beady black eyes, its soft bushy tail, swishing back and forth, looking ready to bolt at any moment. I let out a breathy laugh of relief, glad that it wasn't anything lethal. Unfortunately, my relief was short lived when I heard something charging at me. I spun around and saw the foliage, a few feet away, trembling and then an arm poked through, moving the leaves aside allowing the rest of the body to move through. I let out another, much louder scream, thinking it was a walker, but stopped when I realized it was just Daryl coming back from one of his hunts.

"Would ya shut the hell up!" He had a scowl on his face and his crossbow down by his side. My breath was ragged and my heart was going a mile a minute. "Yer scarin' all the damn game away with yer hollerin'!"

"Well you're not helping by yelling at me!" I put my hand over my pounding chest.

"What're ya doin' out here, so far away from camp, anyway?" he questioned, more calmly now as he scanned the forest with a critical gaze, his crossbow now resting against his shoulder.

"I was taking a walk." I said, following him as he walked further into the trees.

"Takin' a walk?"

"Yeah. It's a verb. The act of putting one foot in front of the other to get somewhere. Case in point, what we're doing right now." I smirked over at him as he turned and glared at me, but upon seeing my playful expression, his softened and he smiled at me.

"Oh. So ya got jokes now, do ya?" I giggled and shook my head.

"I got bored." I said, after composing myself.

"What happened ta all yer lil' girlfriends?" He smirked back at me. "Y'all 're usually attached at the hip."

"They were busy." I answered, glumly, with a half shrug as I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans.

"Uh huh." He chuckled and looked back at me again, same smirk on his smug face. "Prob'ly got tired a'ya." There was that abrasiveness I had mentioned earlier. "What 'bout yer dad?" I looked down, not really wanting to talk about him.

"He's still not talking to me." I chanced a glance at Daryl and saw that his smug expression was gone, now replaced with the usual scowl. Daryl knew about the situation with my father, he had witnessed how bad it had gotten first hand, and saw how my dad had been treating me. I had confided in him one night while everyone was having dinner and Merle was passed out drunk. I don't know why I felt I could talk to him, but I did and surprisingly he listened. He really wasn't as horrible as everyone pegged him to be. Daryl looked down at me and nodded sympathetically. He opened his mouth and began to speak, but was cut off by the sound of footfalls hitting the ground. He stopped and turned towards the noise that was quickly advancing on us. It couldn't have been a walker; whatever it was, was moving much too fast. Daryl reached towards me and pulled me back behind him. My heart fluttered a little at the thought that he was trying to protect me. He lifted his crossbow and aimed towards the quickly approaching noise. I held my breath as it got closer and closer. Then, two figures stumbled out of the brush and I let out a small gasp when I saw that it was two young boys in a heap, on the dirt ground. One had blonde hair; the other light brown. They looked up at us and I just about fainted when I realized that I was staring down at Ben and Kevin.

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It's kind of a cliffhanger. Sorry.

I hope you all liked it and I will try to post the next chapter up soon. Thanks for reading! :)


	9. Chapter 9

Here's chapter 9 you guys! It's a little short and I apologize. I'll try to get chapter 10 out before the weekend ends to make up for it. I want to say thanks to everyone who reviewed and added this story to their alerts and favorites! They're really inspiring and motivate me to keep writing and updating this fic. Also thanks to all the readers, I hope that I'm doing a good job. Oh and I made this website dedicated to The Walking Dead TV and Comic series. It's not quite finished. I still have to add some stuff to it, but the link to it will be posted on my profile if anyone is interested in checking it out. I hope you all enjoy and don't forget to review! :)

Thanks for reading!

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I couldn't believe my eyes. How was it possible for them to just stumble upon us like this? What were the odds? I felt a whirl of emotions sweep through me. I was surprised that they'd been found and relieved that they were both alive. I hadn't been this happy since finding the other survivors. Noticing the terrified look on the boy's faces I glanced in the direction they were looking. Daryl still had his crossbow aimed at the boys. The smile on my face fell and was quickly replaced with a scowl, as my heart pounded, erratically, in my chest. He was aiming that thing at children! I panicked and rushed to stand in front of them, facing Daryl.

"Daryl, put that thing down!" I yelled so loud that all the little birds up in the trees, surrounding us, ceased their chirping and the wilderness became deathly quiet. He ignored me and continued to glare down at the two frightened boys. "I said put it down, right now! They're just kids and one of them is my little brother!" He looked at me now, slightly taken aback, but his weapon remained trained on Ben and Kevin.

"Yer brother?" He inquired, one brow raised in disbelief.

"Yes! Now could you please point that thing away from the children?" He hesitated for a moment, but then lowered his crossbow down to hang by his side, realizing that it was ridiculous of him to threaten two, harmless, and unarmed eleven year old boys. This didn't stop my heart from booming against my ribcage though; I was still somewhat uneasy. "Jeez, could you think next time before you start aiming that thing at people. I know it doesn't come naturally to you, but you could give it a try." The words slipped out of my mouth before I even realized how horrible they were. He had confided in me some of his biggest secrets, as I had confided in him; one of them being, his insecurities about his intelligence. People looked at him and they assumed he was some dumb, illiterate, backwoods hick, but he was by no means stupid. In fact he was quite smart; maybe not book smart, but smart none the less, sadly I don't think he realizes this or anyone else for that matter. And in this new post-apocalyptic world, being book smart meant jack squat. It was people like him that were more likely to come out on top; more likely to survive. His temper, impulsiveness, and lack of patience, I think, overshadowed all the good things I had come to learn about him.

I looked up at him, meeting his narrowed azure eyes. I could tell he was pissed and a little hurt, from the way his eyes seemed to shoot daggers at me. If looks could kill; his eyes were murderous and his thin lips, surrounded by that scruffy goatee, were pursed, forming a thin line. His face was slightly red and he looked like he was on the verge of exploding. I felt terrible for saying what I did. He trusted me and let me tell you, Daryl Dixon was not big on trust. He trusted me because I actually treated him like a decent human being; I listened to what he had to say, I didn't treat him like trash, as I had noticed some of the camp members did. He trusted me and I used that against him. I was disappointed in myself, I had been raised better. "Daryl... I'm-"

"Don't! I don't need no apologies from some smart mouth bitch!" he interrupted my attempts at an apology, abruptly. Another thing I had learned about Daryl was that he was very proud. He refused help from anyone and he absolutely hated being pitied.

"Excuse me!"

"You heard me! Yer lucky I ain't shoot that dipshit brother a'yers!" He sneered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I narrowed my eyes at him, as I took a few steps away from the boys and towards Daryl, challenging him, daring him. The boys had gotten to their feet by now, but stayed behind me, not trusting the hot headed southerner.

"Watch yerself lil' girl." He threatened, his sharp eyes glaring into mine, trying to intimidate me into backing down.

"You stay the hell away from us!" I yelled as I pushed the boys ahead of me and in the direction of the camp.

"Yankee bitch!"

"Dumb fucking hillbilly!" I yelled over my shoulder. Manners flew out the window the minute he threatened my brother. I was fuming. The two boys and I continued to walk towards the camp, leaving Daryl behind to simmer in his fury.

"Are you guys alright?" I stopped them and turned both boys, by their shoulders, to face me. They nodded simultaneously, both still looking scared out of their wits. I thrust my arms out towards them, pulled them to my chest, and held them close, as their thin arms encircled me. I felt like this huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, knowing and actually being able to see that they were alive and in relatively good shape, considering everything they must have been through this whole time. I found it easier to breathe.

"God, I'm so glad you guys are okay." Their small, skinny arms tightened around me. We held onto each other for a few moments longer before letting go, tears stained all of our faces.

"Come on, I'll take you both back to camp. You must be hungry. How did you guys get all the way out here?"

"We've been running around for weeks, just trying to stay hidden." answered Ben, his voice slightly cracking. "These people killed Kevin's parents." He said so quietly I had to strain my ears to hear him. I looked over at Kevin and he looked absolutely miserable. I imagined Ben would be wearing the same expression when he found out about Mom. I wrapped my arms around the shorter boy hoping to give him some form of comfort. His watery blue eyes met mine and he gave me an obviously forced smile, reassuring me that he was alright for now. I dropped my arm from his shoulder, but not before giving it a small squeeze, and we continued the trek in silence. "Camp?" asked Ben, after a moment of silence. I nodded.

"Yeah. We ran into some people on the road and we joined their group. There are a few kids there too. They're a bit younger than you guys, but I'm sure you'll get along just fine." Their faces brightened up a little bit at the news. Despite the wave of relief I felt, I was still saddened and hated that Ben, Kevin, and all the other kids at camp had to be in this situation. This was no place for a child to grow up in; being, literally, surrounded by death. They had seen things that a child should never have to see. They had lost their innocence. I saw the fishing line and tin cans, signaling that we were close to camp, some feet away. I made sure that neither the boys or I would disturb the makeshift alarm system, so as to not frighten the rest of the survivors in the camp.

We finally stepped through the trees and walked into the camp, met by many surprised faces. Ben and Kevin hid behind me, occasionally peeking around me at the survivors and I wondered what they had encountered while we had been separated. That's when I noticed they didn't have their bags with them. This realization only raised more questions, but they would have to wait. People started to gather around, curiously, buzzing with questions, but I ignored them. My eyes searched out one person in the crowd of people. I found him, some yards away, sitting on an old log by Jacqui, in deep conversation. I frowned slightly, not happy to see him enjoying the presence of another woman so much. They had noticed the ever increasing crowd around me. My father's eyes met mine and I smiled at him, receiving a perplexed expression in return. I pulled my brother and Kevin out from behind me and my father's jaw dropped.


	10. Chapter 10

Here's Chapter 10 just as promised! Thanks for the reviews you guys! Like I said before they are really motivating, so keep 'em coming :)

Hope you all enjoy!

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I couldn't decipher the emotions that crossed my dad's face the moment he laid eyes on his son. He got up slowly, whatever conversation he had been having with Jacqui completely forgotten. His pace started off slow, but increased with each step he took until eventually he was in a full on sprint.

"Ben!"

The crowd parted, letting him through and he pulled Ben into his arms. He began sobbing uncontrollably, tears gushing from his eyes as he gripped my brother's lanky frame. He fell to his knees bringing Ben down with him and my eyes brimmed with tears. I made sure to wrap my arms around Kevin, to assure him that he hadn't been forgotten and let him know he wasn't alone. I didn't really know the kid, having only met him once, but I felt strangely protective of him; almost like he was a second brother to me. The whole camp seemed to be moved by the scene of father and son being reunited. I saw Daryl walk out of the woods a few feet away and scoff at the emotional scene before walking off somewhere, away from everyone. I glared at his retreating form. Dad eventually pulled Ben and himself off the ground, but he refused to let him go. He continued to keep some form of physical contact; his arm around his shoulder or his hand on his head. The crowd began to disperse, sensing that we needed a moment of privacy. My dad lead Ben away towards out tent and motioned for Kevin and I to follow. Dad and I got the boys settled into the tent.

"What happened to you guys? Where have you been?" I asked. The curiosity had been eating away at me since I found them in the forest. Ben was the one to speak up.

"We were getting ready to leave. Then these people in army uniforms barged into the kitchen and..." He trailed off. We all knew what happened the second those people walked into that kitchen. We had seen the evidence of it ourselves. "We ran and hid in Kevin's room until we were sure they were gone. We ran to one of his neighbors houses, but they were dead too... so we ran to the car and grabbed our bags from the trunk and just ran. We ran for hours, hiding in bushes or behind trees anytime we heard a car coming. We didn't know what was going on and we were scared that those army people would find us and do the same thing to us that they did to everyone else." He paused for a moment, letting out a deep sigh and for a moment he looked as if he had aged forty years. He looked so troubled. Kevin had yet to say anything.

"How did you survive this long?" asked Dad. They were only boys. It was a miracle that they had gotten by this long by themselves.

"Kevin had this really cool book. It had pictures and descriptions of plant and other stuff that told you if it was safe to eat or not. Some times we found towns and we searched the stores for food, but a lot of them were already empty."

"What happened to your bags?" I inquired.

"They got stolen a week ago by this group of guys. They said they would kill us if we didn't give them everything we had. They had guns..." I could tell that he felt ashamed for not standing up to the looters, but he did the smart thing and did what he had to do to keep himself alive.

"You guys did the right thing." I reassured them.

"Where's Mom?" Ben asked suddenly. I looked down at my hands; tears clouded my eyes. I glanced at my dad, he too was avoiding eye contact with Ben. Ben's face paled as he asked again. "Where's Mom?" his voice trembled, his eyes misted over, already knowing something was wrong. Dad sighed deeply, hating having to do this.

"She didn't make it, Buddy." he said, squeezing Ben's shoulder, comfortingly. Ben broke into sobs and my heart broke as he buried his face into his hands. Kevin reached out and put his arm around his shoulder; I grabbed one of his hands, rubbing circles on it with my thumb, hoping to soothe him. Dad reached over and pulled Ben into his arms once more, rubbing his back as his sobs continued. "I'm so sorry. It's gonna be okay, I promise."

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By the time dinner time rolled around Ben had settled down and we were on our way to the campfire. Dad of course sat by Jacqui; followed by Ben, Kevin, and myself. I looked around the circle of survivors, unconsciously looking for Daryl. When I realized what I was doing, I immediately stopped and mentally scolded myself. He threatened and disrespected me and my little brother, why should I care where he is. _Because you like him._ I heard a small voice in my head say. I couldn't like him! Not after what he said today. He had crossed the line. Nobody calls me a bitch or threatens my family and gets off Scott-free. I felt Amy nudge my arm, when she saw me frowning as she came to sit by me. She looked at me questioningly. I just shook my head, silently telling her it was nothing.

Everyone was here except for the few people that segregated themselves from the rest of the group; like the Dixons and Peletiers, though I'm sure Carol and Sophia didn't have much of a choice where Ed, the chauvinistic jerk, was concerned. I felt bad for them. I couldn't imagine having someone control my every move. That was no way to live, in my opinion. Squirrel was on the menu for tonight's dinner again, judging from the smell. I noticed Shane get up from his spot across from us, by Lori and Carl. He cleared his throat and spoke.

"Alright, I just wanna introduce everyone to our two new additions, Ben; who is Scott's son, Camilla's little brother, and his friend, Kevin. Welcome." Everyone greeted them just as they had my dad and I. Carl immediately struck up a conversation with Ben and Kevin, bringing them out of their shells. Pretty soon Morales' kids jumped in as well. I noticed Sophia looking on longingly and my heart went out to her. I really despised Ed at that moment for making his family so miserable. **I wish someone would just put him in his place. **Andrea, Jacqui, and Miranda began handing out paper plates with brown strips of squirrel meat, less than we usually got, I noticed. I wasn't the only person to take notice either.

"Is this all that's left?" Shane questioned, frowning down at his plate.

"Sure is." I whipped my head around at the voice, which belonged to no other than the redneck bastard known as Daryl Dixon, and I glared up at him. "No thanks to someone hollerin', while I was tryin' ta hunt." he announced, pointedly looking down at me with narrowed eyes. I couldn't help but admire the way the fire reflected off his tan skin, accentuating his toned biceps. "Scared everythin' away." I subtly flipped him off, being seen only by him and Amy. "You wish." he muttered, smirking smugly, and turned around to walk away. "Pig." I scoffed, loud enough so that he could still hear me. I turned back around to face everyone and saw them all staring at me quizzically. I looked down, avoiding eye contact, and took a bite of the squirrel.

"We still have a few cans of beans and peaches, but won't last us long. Food isn't the only thing we're running low on." said Andrea, who sat on the other side of Amy.

"I know." agreed Shane, heaving a deep, troubled sigh.

"Maybe I could take another trip into the city and try to find some stuff." Glenn spoke up. He would sometimes go into Atlanta whenever we needed something. People were never comfortable with him going in alone, but he assured everyone that he knew the city like the back of his hand and that he knew what he was doing. I never doubted him for a second; he was a really clever guy.

"No." protested Shane. "You've risked yourself enough as it is."

"I don't mind, really." Glenn insisted. "Plus, we need the supplies. They're not gonna drop out of the sky." Shane began to protest again, but was interrupted by Andrea, before he could get a word out.

"Why don't a group of us go into the city. Safety in numbers." She suggested. The camp members seemed to like that idea, since a bunch of them voiced their agreements, eagerly. Glenn didn't seem to keen on the idea of other people tagging along and Shane liked this idea even less than the first one proposed.

"No, it's too dangerous. Y'all know how bad the city is." argued Shane, with finality in his voice.

"Okay, even I have to agree, a group of people going into the city is a bad idea." said Glenn.

"We can't let the kids go hungry." reasoned Jacqui. Shane sighed once again, but this time in defeat, realizing that do to the situation we were in, we had to take risks in order for the camp to survive.

"Fine." Shane relented. "But how are we gonna figure out who goes?"

After dinner my dad told me to go put the boys to bed. He stayed behind with Jacqui. After Shane asked who would be willing to go into the city to scavenge for supplies, a couple of people offered their services. Jacqui was one of them and I assumed my dad was trying to talk her out of it. The boys and I reached the olive green tent and ducked inside. They must have been exhausted because they were dead to the world as soon as their heads touched the blue sleeping bag, laid out on the floor of the tent and I followed seconds later.

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The next few days consisted of planning and the assembly of a group to go into Atlanta. To my surprise, a lot of people were eager to go into the city to help find supplies, Andrea being one of them. I didn't know why anyone would want to do that. I had seen more than enough of those walkers for one life time. Maybe some people had different motives for wanting to go. I knew that Andrea wanted to go into the city so that she could find a present for Amy's birthday, which was quickly approaching. Merle was another surprising volunteer and I knew damn well he had a motive. He wasn't the "I'll help you out of the kindness of my heart" type. Ben and Kevin seemed to be getting along just fine, although they were still in an, understandably, melancholy mood, they seemed to be healing. I think being around other children helped a lot, as well as the almost care free environment we lived in.

My dad had been strangely absent from our tent the past few nights and I had a feeling I knew where he was. This only caused me to feel more resentment towards him. Half of my brain told me that it was a good thing for him to start moving on, but the other half felt like he was betraying my mother. I longed to be able to vent about it to someone, but unfortunately, Daryl and I were still not speaking to each other. I would notice him staring at me, just as I'm sure he had noticed me doing the same. I missed hanging out with him. Amy would catch our longing glances and she would tease me about it insistently. I believe one time, while doing hanging laundry she bluntly said

"Oh my god, just screw each other already!" which flustered me and caused the other women to laugh loudly at my expense, as she had not been quiet about it and half the camp heard, including Daryl. I avoided him the rest of the day, which wasn't hard because he traipsed off into the woods, shortly after.

Later that night, after dinner I walked around camp for awhile, hoping to clear my head. It was dark, the dim embers from the campfire provided very little light and I couldn't help but wonder if my dad would be in our tent tonight or if he would decide to, once again, spend the night with Jacqui. I saw a figure walk out of the boscage in front of me, startling me. I gasped loudly as my hand flew to rest above my pounding chest. It was Daryl; he had come back empty handed again. Our eyes were trained on each other, neither of us moving a muscle. It felt as if hours had gone by, but really it had only been a few seconds. I wanted to say something to him, but I couldn't find the words, so I instead turned and walked towards my little green tent that I shared with my dad, Ben, and Kevin. I walked in and only found the two boys sleeping soundly, meaning that my dad had indeed decided to stay with Jacqui again. I laid down beside the sleeping duo, but sleep evaded me and I laid there for hours, just staring at the ceiling of the tent, before I was finally able to drift off.

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Thanks for reading and Please review :D


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11! OMG! Thanks for all of the reviews and alert and fav adds you guys. You are all so FREAKIN AWESOME!

I'm really sorry for not updating sooner. I've been sick and school has completely taken over my life, so updates probably won't be coming as regularly as before. But only 2 more months until I graduate! Then I'll have all the time in the world to write :) Yay! I promise I will not abandon this story. I have an outline for it and everything, I know exactly where I want this to go, so no worries.

So here it is. I hope you all enjoy and please review.

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I woke up the next morning to find myself alone in the tent. I stepped out and saw the group of people who, I assumed, volunteered to go into the city, getting ready to leave. Among the group was T-Dog, Morales, Glenn, Andrea, Merle, Jacqui, and... Dad? My eyes widened when I realized that he intended to go along. I hurriedly made my way towards him intent on stopping him from attending this suicide mission.

"What are you doing?" I questioned angrily.

"I'm gonna go look for supplies in Atlanta." my dad replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"So, you're just gonna leave me and Ben here while you go into the city on some suicide mission?" I yelled, my hands on my hips.

"Camilla, it's not a suicide mission. I have a gun and we're in a group. We're all gonna be fine, so don't worry." The deep scowl on my face showed that I was not pleased with his answer.

"Do you hear yourself?" I scoffed. "We just got Ben back and now you're just gonna take off? Why are you doing this?"

"These people have helped us so much, Cam. We would most likely be dead if it weren't for them. The least I could do is help out."

"You can help out here. Come on, just admit it! The only reason you're even going is because the woman you're fucking is going!" There was a collective gasp as those words left my mouth. I immediately regretted them. My hand shot up to cover my mouth, eyes wide. I slowly brought my hands down to my sides as I looked up at my dad, afraid to meet his eyes, his face reddened with anger and embarrassment. He walked up to me with big, quick strides and for a moment I thought he was going to strike me, as I saw his right arm lift up slightly, causing me to take a step back.

"You and me," he said, his finger pointed at my face. "we're gonna have a talk when I come back. Do you understand me?"

"If you come back." I replied, defiantly. And this time he did strike me. I felt the sharp sting of the back of his hand meet the right side of my face, causing my head to snap back violently. My hand flew up to my face, in shock. I couldn't believe that he actually hit me. In all my life my dad had never raised a hand to me or anyone else for that matter. He didn't believe in corporal punishment, he was completely against it. His face paled, realizing what he had done, he tried to apologize.

"Camilla... I-I'm so sorry, honey." I shook my head, tears streamed down my cheeks as I stepped away from his outstretched hand. "Cam, please. I'm sorry sweetheart. You know I didn't mean-"

"I hate you." I said, barely above a whisper.

"What?"

"I HATE YOU!" I sobbed, loudly, this time. The camp got real quiet, all attention was on us.

"Cam, you don't mean that. I'm your father."

"No you're not!" I continued to sob, angrily wiping the tears from my face, hating that everyone was seeing me cry. I felt naked. "I don't even know who you are anymore." I turned and walked away. I noticed Daryl standing off to the side, by Merle, watching the whole thing. The expression on his face caught me off guard. He looked sad and slightly angry. After what happened that day in the woods, when Ben and Kevin had been found, I thought he hated me. When he saw me looking he quickly schooled his features into a mask of indifference. I looked away from him then and continued into the woods, being careful not to go in too far. I sat on a fallen log and gently ran my hand down the right side of my face. I felt something warm and wet on my lower lip; I pulled my hand away and looked down, finding blood on my fingertips. This only made me start crying again as I hugged my knees and buried my face into them. I felt ashamed for saying what I did, for taking the low road, and my dad was right. I didn't mean it when I said I hated him, but I was so angry with him for the way he had been treating me. He had completely pushed me aside and treated me more like a stranger than his daughter, sure sometimes he would have his occasional fatherly outbursts, but then he would go back to being the callous man I had come to know. He didn't treat Ben like this. In fact their relationship was the same as it had been before all this crap happened, if not better and I didn't understand why. My sobs continued as I thought about this. Minutes passed and I felt a warm hand rest on my shoulder. I pulled my blotchy, tear stained face away from my knees and looked up with bloodshot eyes to find Amy standing over me, offering a comforting smile. I mustered up a shaky one in return and she took a seat on the log, beside me, pulling me into a comforting embrace. At least I wasn't completely alone in what was left of this world.

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Scott's POV

I felt like the most horrible father, as I watched my only daughter, run away from me, sobbing after telling me that she hated me. She said she didn't know who I was anymore. Had I really changed that much? Apparently that seemed to be the case since I had the audacity to hit her. I was more embarrassed now than I was before. She had reason to be mad at me. I wasn't completely oblivious to the way I had been treating her or how she was affected by it. But I couldn't speak to her. I couldn't look at her. Not when she reminded me so much of her mother, Aida. When Camilla told me of her death, I felt as if a part of me had died along with her. That day broke me and every time I looked at her, I saw Aida. I felt a small, warm hand come to rest on the middle of my back.

"Scott, honey, she didn't mean all that. She's just angry." I looked down at Jacqui's warm, comforting face, as she tried to defend Camilla, despite the fact that she too had been humiliated in front of the camp by some of her words. She too reminded me of Aida, but not because of her looks. Aida's features were soft and rounded, where Jacqui's were sharp and angled. No, they looked nothing alike, but they had very similar personalities. Both were soft spoken and sweet, but if you got on their bad side, you had better watch out.

"I know, but she's right. She has a reason to be angry. I've changed."

"We've all changed." I nodded in agreement, even though I didn't truly believe it. "Maybe you should stay and wait for her to come back. You don't have to go." I shook my head. I had to do this. "Okay, if you're sure?" I nodded. "Come on then. Y'all can talk it out when we come back." Jacqui said, gently rubbing soothing circles on my back. I looked toward the trees again, hoping Camilla would come out. When I didn't see any sign of her, I turned around and headed toward the group, preparing to leave.

End POV

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Later that day after having cried myself out and spilling my guts out to Amy about my dad, Daryl, and pretty much everything, we stepped out of the woods and went back to camp. Half of me hoped that the scavenging group had already left, while the other half hoped that they were still there. I didn't want those to be the last words my dad heard me say to him. I didn't want him to think that I hated him because I really didn't. I was angry with him, yes, but I didn't hate him. When Amy and I arrived, all eyes fell on me and my face flushed in embarrassment. I had made an unnecessary scene that morning and had humiliated not only myself, but also my father and Jacqui. I deeply regretted everything I had said and done that morning; I wished I could take it all back, but alas it couldn't be done. I decided that I wanted to get cleaned up since it was a relatively hot day; I felt gross and sticky. I went over to my tent and got some fresh clothes and a towel, which I had gotten from Dale upon first arriving at camp more than a month ago. I searched out Amy and informed her of my plans to go down to the quarry for a swim. I loved the quarry; the beautiful color of the water and how secluded it was without it being dark and creepy. I walked to the shore of the enormous lake and set the clean clothes and towel on one of the rocks by the shore. I stripped off my clothes after checking to make sure that I was alone. I swam into the deep part of the lake and just drifted through, occasionally feeling the small fish nip at my toes.

"Finally stuck it ta yer dad I see." I spun around, still in the cool water and saw Daryl crouching down by the shore, splashing water on his sweaty face.

"What are you doing here?" I scowled at him as I sunk into the water until all you could see was my head. I felt uncomfortable being naked in his presence, even though the water provided sufficient coverage, it still unnerved me.

"I'm bout ta go huntin'. Try not ta scare anythin' off today. Ya think ya can do that?" He threw a wink my way and my scowl deepened. I didn't reply, but I did keep my eyes on him. I couldn't help but notice his muscled arms that were constantly on show, since almost all of his shirts had the sleeves either ripped or cut off. I loved how the muscle would ripple underneath his tanned skin as he moved and I found myself wanting to touch them to see if they were as firm as they looked. I shook my head and mentally scolded myself for ogling him again. I couldn't understand why I was so attracted to this jackass or when this absurd attraction had even started. He got up, drying his dripping face with the hem of his shirt and walked off without a word, but not before glancing my way once more, throwing me one of those smug smirks of his. I waited about a minute before getting out of the water and hurriedly wrapping myself in the towel. I got dressed into some jeans, a gray t-shirt, and my favorite sneakers, behind a large rock and made my way back to camp.

When I got there I saw Amy yelling into the CB and a couple of the survivors, gathering around. I walked over to her, curious about what was going on.

"We're just outside the city... dammit." She was trying to warn someone about Atlanta. It was a man from what I could hear. "Hello? Hello? Ugh, he couldn't hear me, I couldn't warn him." She said frustrated, tinkering with the CB.

"Try to reach him again." said Dale. He looked over to Shane. "Come on, Son. You know best how to work this thing." Shane walked over, ax in hand and took over.

"Hello, Hello, Is the person who called still on the air?" He said and then paused, as we all waited anxiously for a response. "This is Officer Shane Walsh, broadcasting to person unknown. Please respond." He paused again, but we heard nothing but static. The connection was lost. Shane put down the speaker dejectedly. "He's gone." he sighed.

"There are others. It's not just us." Lori spoke up. I jumped, not realizing she was behind me.

"Well we knew there would be, right? That's why we left the CB on?" Shane snarked. Shane was an okay guy most of the time. Sure he was a little too serious, which was understandable under these circumstances, and somewhat bossy, but for the most part he meant well and took care of everyone. But he had his asshole moments; like right now, for example

"A lot of good it's been doing. And I've been saying for a week, we gotta put signs up on 85 and warn people away from the city."

"She's right." I agreed. "My dad and I would've walked right into that death trap if we hadn't run into you. We're alive and kickin' out of sheer dumb luck."

"Folks got no idea what they're getting into." Amy added.

"Well we haven't had time." Shane grumbled. He got up, looking agitated, as he placed his hands on his hips, something I noticed he did... a lot.

"We have nothing but time." I tried reasoning. Shane set his dark eyes on me.

"No. We don't. We are surviving here. We live day to day."

"Who the hell would you propose we send?" inquired Dale. I didn't know whether the question was directed at me or Lori.

"I'll go. Give me a vehicle." she said. The debate was beginning to get heated so I decided to step back and butt out. I was not trying to make any enemies. It wasn't like anyone would listen to me anyway. Shane and Lori continued back and forth until Lori finally gave up and stormed off, Carl hurrying along after her only to be stopped by Shane. I steered him back towards camp, while Shane followed Lori, and told him to go play with the other kids. He ran off and I looked back at the CB in despair, worried for the poor soul that was about to walk right into the lion's den.

I turned to look behind me and saw Amy pick up some fire wood and I walked over to help her. We continued collecting twigs and small branches well into the afternoon, hoping to keep our minds off of our loved ones that were currently risking their lives in Atlanta, with mindless chatter. Later we played with kids because god knows they needed the distraction. I noticed Ben wasn't acting like himself, he was being unusually quiet. I knew part of it had to do with Mom. He tried to act like everything was okay, but I could hear him crying sometimes, at night. I could also tell he was worried about Dad. I was beginning to worry about him too. I heard earlier, at the beginning of our stay at the camp, how bad Atlanta was from some of the other survivors and how lucky we had been to run into Shane, before we had a chance to find out for ourselves. I thought going into the city after knowing the dangers was one of the most idiotic things anyone could do. Aside from being worried I was also angry. He had just been reunited with his son, who had been missing for almost two months, and he suddenly decides he wants to go traipsing into the geek infested city? I honestly didn't understand what was going on through that man's head. Then he hit me! That's when I really knew he had changed.

* * *

It was getting late; my dad and the others still had not come back. Then they contacted us through the CB. It was hard to understand what they were saying, but we had gotten the gist of it. They were trapped in a department store. My uneasiness increased. I wasn't the only one that had started to panic. Amy was, of course, worried about her sister as well.

"Shane-" Lori began, only to be interrupted

"No way. We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group, y'all know that." said Shane, his hands once again resting on his hips.

"So we're just gonna leave her there?" Amy said in disbelief, obviously referring to her sister.

"Amy, I know that this is not easy-"

"She volunteered to go, to help the rest of us." She reasoned, as her eyes began to tear up at the thought of leaving her sister behind.

"I know." he nodded in understanding. "She knew the risks, right? She's trapped, she's gone. So we'll just have to deal with that. There's nothing we can do." That bastard! How could he say that? How could he just give up on everybody? What was wrong with him? Amy was outraged and so was I.

"She's my sister you son of a bitch." she snarled and stormed off. I looked at Shane.

"My dad is out there too, you bastard. I can't believe you're just gonna give up on all of them like that. I thought you were better than that." I said, my eyes narrowed. I then turned and went to follow Amy, maybe try to calm her down. I decided not to tell Ben about Dad. He had enough to worry about. He didn't need this adding to it.

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I hope you all enjoyed that. Until next time, Adieu!


	12. Chapter 12

Sorry it took me so long to update. I've been really busy with school and haven't had time to work on this. I just want to say thanks for all the reviews, alert, and fav. adds, they mean a lot and thanks to all my readers. I just checked the stats for this story and the number of hits it had blew my mind! So thanks again and enjoy. Don't forget to review :)

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With every hour that passed my uneasiness increased tenfold. A myriad of questions raced through my mind. What if they couldn't get out of the city by nightfall? The geeks got worse at night. They would have to stay there until tomorrow, most likely, without any kind of supplies. They must have been miserable out there, with no water and the hot Georgia sun mercilessly beating down on them. I didn't know what to do with myself, so I proceeded to pace around the camp, hoping to find something to distract myself with. Unfortunately there was absolutely nothing to do. _And Shane said we didn't have time._ I was driving myself crazy, thinking about everything that could have gone wrong. I was snapped out of my pessimistic thoughts of doom by a loud siren-like sound; like a car alarm. I turned towards the dirt road, leading to our camp, to see a bright red car quickly approaching, a cloud of dust trailing behind it; it's loud alarm blaring, echoing off the hills, capturing everyone's attention.

"Talk to me Dale." Shane called out to the older man, who was up atop the RV.

"Can't tell yet." he replied looking through his binoculars.

"Is it them? Are they back?" asked Amy as I came to stand by her.

"It has to be. Who else would come up here?" I hoped to god it was.

"What is it?"

"Stolen car's my guess." Dale said, finally getting a good look at what was causing the noise.

It came to a sudden stop and Glenn jumped out, huge grin on his face, seemingly proud to have brought this beauty of a car back with him. Everyone approached the blaring vehicle, demanding that Glenn turn the alarm off.

"I don't how!" replied Glenn to all the demands. I covered my ears as everything began to get unbearably loud do to Amy bombarding Glenn with a million questions and Shane yelling at him telling him to pop the hood. Glenn leaned into the car and open the hood of the car and a few seconds later Jim had managed to cut the alarm by pulling, what I assumed to be a fuse, out of the engine. I brought my hands down. It was a lot quieter now, but Amy was still interrogating the poor guy.

"Is she coming back?" Amy asked loudly. She was hysterical.

"Yes!" yelled Glenn, exasperated.

"Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?"

"Yes. Yeah. She's fine. Everybody is... well Merle not so much." he said the last part quietly. What did he mean Merle wasn't okay? Did he get bit? Did he die?

"You crazy drivin' this wheelin' bastard up here, you tryna draw every walker for miles?" scolded Shane, leaning against the front of the car, looking down into the engine.

"I think we're okay." Dale reassured the camp.

"Don't be stupid, okay?" replied Shane. _Asshole moment._ Glenn continued to get his ass chewed out by Dale and Shane. I heard the sound of gravel shifting beneath tires and saw a big, white cube van drive up, on the same road that Glenn had, and come to a slow stop. Andrea came out first, she and Amy embraced. I saw Jacqui, Morales, T-Dog, and then my dad. Ben ran towards Dad and nearly knocked him over as he hugged him tightly. I didn't quite know what to do, so I stood there, my hands fidgeting. As they neared, side by side, Dad's arm over Ben's shoulder, our eyes met and I hesitantly walked towards them. I came to a stop about arms length away and opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. My dad reached out suddenly and pulled me towards him, hugging me tightly.

"I'm so sorry, Camilla. I'm so, so sorry." he said, my hair muffling his words, slightly.

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have said all those things. I don't hate you." I apologized. By now I had started crying. The guilt of my words and actions had been eating away at me all day. We had not been this close in months. "I thought I was never going to see you again."

"Hey helicopter boy! Come say hello." I heard Morales say, causing me to pull away and look over my dad's shoulder. I saw that somebody else had climbed out of the van. It was a man I had never seen before, who wore a dirty sheriff's uniform, badge and all. The only thing he was missing was a hat. _Who is this guy?_ A look of disbelief crossed the man's face. He looked close to tears. I saw Carl rush past me and into the man's arms. They held each other tightly and the man collapsed to the ground, still holding the small boy. I realized then that this must have been his father, Rick. He had told me all about him. How he was sick and they had to leave him in the hospital when all of this happened. Lori looked as if she had seen a ghost as she too rushed and embraced the man. Tears of joy welled up in my eyes as I watched the scene before me, remembering being in almost the same situation not too long ago.

"We need to talk tonight. Okay?" Dad said, one arm slung over my shoulder.

* * *

Later that night we all sat around the fire, Ben sat in front of my dad and Kevin in front of me. Both boys were extremely tired and looked on the verge of passing out as we listened to the new guy tell us what it was like to wake up to this hell we lived in.

"Disoriented. I guess that comes closest." he said. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to go to sleep one day and wake up the next to see the world as it is today. I would've thought I had gone crazy.

"Words can be meager things." said Dale as he set down his cup of water. "Sometimes they fall short." It never ceased to amaze how wise that man was. He was definitely someone you could look to for some good advice. Rick continued to describe what it was like and expressed his gratitude to Shane for taking care of his family. Silence fell over the group, but was soon broken.

"Hey Ed. You wanna rethink that log?" Shane asked after seeing Ed throw another log into his own fire that he had away from the rest of the group.

"It's cold man." was all Ed said in reply.

"Cold don't change the rules, does it? We keep our fires low, just embers, so we can't be seen from a distance, right?"

"I said it's cold. Why don't ya mind yer own business for once." I tensed knowing nothing good was going to come from this. Shane quickly got up and made his way over to Ed and his family. They exchanged a few words and then I saw Carol scramble to quickly get the log out of the fire. Shane then walked back and took his spot by our small fire.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." said Dale, reminding us all of the problem that awaited us when Daryl returned from hunting.

"That's the understatement of the year. He's gonna be pissed." I muttered, causing everyone to look at me and for Kevin to jolt awake, only to doze off again a few seconds later.

"I'll tell 'em. I dropped the key, it's on me." said T-Dog. I could tell it was weighing heavily on him and he felt genuinely bad about Merle being left behind, despite all the nasty things he had been called.

"I cuffed him. That makes him mine." Rick said, taking the blame for what happened. Really it wasn't anybody's fault but Merle's.

"Maybe you should let me tell h-" I began, but was abruptly cut off.

"It's not gonna make a difference who tells him." Shane scoffed.

"Now wait a minute, I think Camilla has a point." Dale said, giving me a knowing look. He was one of the many that had noticed the strange friendship that had blossomed between Daryl and myself.

"Thank you, Dale." I threw him and appreciative smile. "And I think it does make a difference. If we approach this the right way then maybe he won't freak out... as much. I mean, you're not exactly known for your subtlety." I directed the last part at Shane, to which he replied with a glare.

"Guys, It's not a competition." said Glenn, somewhat exasperated. He'd probably had enough of our arguing. "I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." I thought about that for a moment, but I still disagreed. I still thought they should let me tell him.

"I did what I did. Hell if I'm gonna hide from it." T-dog said.

"We could lie" Amy suggested. I shot her a glare.

"We are not gonna lie to him." I said, completely against the idea.

"We tell the truth." Andrea said. At least she was being rational. "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd of gotten us killed." she reasoned. "Your husband did what was necessary and if Merle got left behind it is nobody's fault but Merle's." she directed towards Lori. Telling him that was a great example of the wrong approach.

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale said, unconvinced. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" he turned to look at me.

"No, but we can't lie to him. It wouldn't be right." I reasoned. Dale nodded in understanding.

"Word to the wise. We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt." _Ain't that the truth._

"I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it." T-Dog said. I looked at him, puzzled and he seemed to be lost in thought

"We were all scared, we all ran. What's your point." questioned Andrea, not sure where he was going with this.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door. Staircase is narrow, maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at one time. It's not enough to break through there. Not that chain, not that padlock. My point, Dixon's alive, he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us." With that T-Dog got up, a guilty look on his face, and walked off. Merle was still alive. I couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. A tense silence fell over the rest of us and we eventually went our separate ways for the night.

* * *

My dad and I coaxed the boys awake long enough to get them to our tent. They were snoring as soon as they hit the ground. I wondered what time it was as I made myself comfortable, preparing to go to sleep.

"Camilla, I'm sorry." I looked up at him. He sat with his back to the opening of the tent, his legs bent and his arms rested on his knees. "The way I've been treating you lately, since your mom died, has been unacceptable and I'm so sorry. I can never make that up to you." I stared at him in shock, his head hung in shame.

"Why?"

"Why what?" He looked back at me in confusion.

"Why did you do that to me? Why did you treat me like a pariah? You have no idea how that made me feel or what it was like, thinking the only family I had left hated me." I said, angry tears welled up in my eyes, but I tried to reel them back in. I was tired of crying. I felt like that's all I did nowadays. You'd think I would of run out of tears by now.

"You look so much like your mother." my brows furrowed at the seemingly irrelevant comment. "Every time I looked at you, I saw her." it dawned on me then, why he tried so hard to push me away. "It hurt so much when I lost her. I couldn't bear to lose you too, so I distanced myself. If anything ever happened to you, it wouldn't hurt as much. Now that I think about it, it was pretty stupid." he heaved a deep sigh. "No matter what, I can never, nor will I ever stop loving you." his voice cracked towards the end. The tears I had been fighting, finally won out and spilled over as I launched myself at him, embracing him in a hug. After that we talked about everything I had been longing to tell him since being at the camp. I even told him about Daryl, which he disapproved of greatly. We joked and laughed like old times, quietly though, so as to not wake up the boys. I was reminded of the hours we would spend in the garage, back home, working on the old mustang we, unfortunately, had to leave behind. It felt like everything was right in the world; all my problems and worries were pushed to the back of my mind. After yawning for the tenth time, my dad told me to get some sleep and I happily obliged.

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I hope I didn't disappoint. Please review. I love constructive criticism :)


	13. Chapter 13

I am so so so so so so sorry! I have no excuse for being so late on posting this chapter other than pure laziness. But here it is chapter 13! Again I am so sorry for the wait. I just watched the trailer for the second season of The Walking Dead for the 20th time and just had to post an update. The second season looks so AWESOME! I can't wait! What did you guys think about the trailer?

I have made a new and much better banner for my story. You guys should definitely check it out. All the links for this story are on my profile. This chapter is a little shorter than I wanted it to be but you all deserved an update, so here it is. I hope you enjoy! :D

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Morning came much to soon. As I stepped out of my tent I saw Glenn standing over by the Red car he had brought back from the city. He looked miserable. Rick was standing beside him, probably offering words of comfort as his new car was being stripped clean. He soon walked away, leaving Glenn with a pat on the back. I shook my head and chuckled. I met up with Amy and Andrea and helped them hang out some laundry. They smirked, seeing Rick head towards his wife, Lori.

"Me and my dad are talking again." I told both Amy and Andrea. They looked up in surprise and their faces beamed.

"That's great!" exclaimed Andrea.

"Why the sudden change?" questioned Amy

"We just talked about it and -" I was cut off by the sound of Shane's quickly approaching jeep.

"Water's here y'all! Just a reminder to boil before use." He instructed as he stepped out of his vehicle. Glenn, Amy, Andrea, Shane, and I all approached the back of the jeep and proceeded to help unload the containers of water.

"Anyway, like I was saying before, we just talked about it and -" I was interrupted again, but this time by horrified screams, one of them unmistakably belonged to my little brother. Everyone became silent but only for a second before we all jumped into action. Rick and Lori were the first ones to run into the forest, calling out Carl's name, closely followed by Shane and I. We found them. Lori and I stayed by Jacqui and the kids as the men ran ahead of us, weapons in hand.

"Ben, Kevin, you guys okay?" I asked looking them over, they nodded silently, their breaths coming in quick short gasps.

"Your dad, he's still out there." Jacqui told me, as she pointed in the direction they had come from. I gave her a nod of thanks and instructed Ben and Kevin to stay with her as I ran in search of my dad. I didn't have to go far. I reached a small clearing of trees and saw the men looking at a walker hunched over a dead deer, stuffing it's face. The noises it made as it ate made my stomach churn and the smell was awful. He slowly got up, the deer now completely ignored, as he sensed the new company. He turned around, his face covered in blood and I knew that face, like all the others, would haunt me til the day I died. He growled and came toward us, his dirty, stringy, greasy hair swinging slightly as he did. Rick delivered the first blow, making it stumble back a little. After that they all joined in, including my dad, beating the thing until finally Dale chopped it's head off with an ax. They all panted and looked at the decapitated corpse in disbelief.

"That's the first one we've had up here." Dale informed Rick "They never come this far up the mountain."

"They're running out of food in the city, that's what." Jim reasoned quietly. Suddenly there was some rustling up ahead and everyone was on edge again. Shane had his shotgun trained on the noise, but put it down after seeing it was only Daryl that had been making all the noise.

"Son of a bitch! That's my deer!" Daryl yelled "Look at it, all gnawed on by this filthy," Kick. "disease bearin'," Kick. "motherless," Kick, kick. "poxy bastard!"

"Calm down, Son. That's not helpin'." said Dale, being the peacemaker that he was. Daryl wasn't having any of it.

"Whadda you know about it old man!" he yelled as he charged towards Dale. "You take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'." He was being especially mean today. This had to be one of the worst times to tell him about Merle. He was mad enough as it was. Daryl sighed heavily as he walked back toward the mauled deer. "Been tracking this deer for miles. Drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison" he said as he pulled out the arrows I hadn't noticed before, sticking out of the deer's abdomen.

"Whadda ya think, think we can cut around this part chewed up part right here?" he asked, looking up at everyone. I cringed. There was no way in hell I would eat that after it was mauled by a walker.

"I would not risk that." said Shane. Hallelujah! For once I could agree with the guy. Daryl sighed in disappointment.

"'s a damn shame. I got some squirrel 'bout a dozen or so.'ll have ta do." he said as he shouldered the string of squirrels. The severed head began to move then, opening and closing it's mouth in a chewing motion.

"Oh god." I heard someone say behind me. I turned in time to see Amy's disgusted face as she and Andrea quickly turned and headed back to camp. I hadn't even noticed them come up behind me.

"Come on people, what the hell?" Daryl said as I turned back around just in time to see him take aim and shoot a bolt into the severed head, straight through it's left eye, making a sickening gushing sound. He then went over to it, keeping it still with his foot as he pulled the arrow out. "It's gotta be the brain." he stated "Don't y'all know nothin'." he berated everyone's inability to properly take out the walker as he began walking towards camp, calling out his brother's name, and completely ignoring me.

"Merle! Merle! Get ya ugly ass out here! Got us some squirrel! Stew 'em up." he called for his brother.

"Daryl, slow up a bit. I needa talk to you." Shane said after he put his shot gun away.

"Shane maybe I should -" I began as I walked quickly, trying to keep up with Shane's long strides, but was interrupted for the third time that day.

"'bout what?" Daryl asked, seemingly uninterested.

"'bout Merle." Shane had his full attention now. "There was a... uh... there was a problem in Atlanta." Shane told him, trying find the best way to tell him without setting him off. They were smack dab in the middle of camp now and everyone at camp was watching, waiting for his reaction. I could practically see them passing the popcorn around. Daryl knew something was up, as he looked suspiciously at all the people surrounding him and Shane.

"He dead?" Daryl assumed.

"We're not sure."

"He either is or he ain't!" I could tell he was getting fed up with the tip toeing and wanted some straight answers. Rick chose that moment to step in.

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Rick said as he walked up to the agitated man.

"Who're you?" Daryl questioned.

"Rick Grimes."

"Rick Grimes." Daryl mocked. "Ya got somethin' you wanna tell me." My heart was racing now. I knew that this was not going to end well and I feared for their safety.

"Your brother was a danger to us all." Rick reasoned. "So I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal, he's still there." This was bad. This was very, very bad. To say Daryl was pissed was a huge understatement.

"Hold on. Let me process this." he said, as he began pacing. "So you handcuffed my brother to a roof AND YOU LEFT HIM THERE!"

"Yeah." Rick confirmed lamely. Daryl's breathing was ragged. He reminded me of a raging bull getting ready to charge. And that's exactly what he did. He threw the squirrels at Rick and then charged at him only to be tackled by Shane before he could reach his target. Daryl then pulled out this huge hunting knife out of it's sheath, got up, and proceeded to swing it at Rick, which the latter skillfully dodged. Shane came up behind him and put him into a choke hold as Rick disarmed him. This only served to further enrage Daryl.

"You best let me go!" Daryl raged as he tried to slip out of Shane's grasp.

"Nah. I think it's better if I don't." Shane replied calmly as he brought Daryl to the ground. I went to take a step forward wanting desperately to help but was stopped by my dad's hand on my shoulder, keeping me in place. I looked up at him questioningly, but only received a stern look that told me not to argue with him. I huffed and turned back to look at the scene.

"Choke-holdin's illegal." If I wasn't so worried about someone getting hurt I would have laughed at this. Now I could only watch helplessly on the sidelines. It was only now that I realized how much I had actually come to care for not only the other survivors in the camp, but for Daryl as well. It bothered me greatly to see the way Shane was handling him, even though Daryl was a threat to both Rick and Shane at the moment.

"File a complaint." Shane quipped. I shook my head. Now was really not the time to make smart ass remarks. He was only managing to rile, the hot headed southerner, up even more, judging by the way Daryl continued to struggle and the angered noises he made. "Come on now, we can keep this up all day." Daryl's efforts to break free began to relinquish as he continued to pant. Rick got down on one knee, eye level with Daryl.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic. Ya think we can manage that?" Rick got no reply so he asked again. "Ya think we can manage that?" Again there was no reply. Rick and Shane shared a look and the latter roughly released Daryl, shoving him to the ground. I had the strongest urge to run up to Shane and give him a good solid kick where the sun don't shine, but I of course couldn't do that. It would only cause more unnecessary drama. "What I did was not on a whim. Your brother does not work or play well with others." Rick explained to Daryl as he sat in the dirt recovering from his tantrum. I again shook my head in disapproval. Anybody who took the time to really get to know Daryl, would know that the guy worshiped his big brother, like most other younger siblings do. Sure Rick was new and all, but pointing out all of Merle's flaws was not helping the situation.

"It's not Ricks fault." T-Dog spoke. We all turned to look at him. "I had the key. I dropped it." I could tell he felt bad. T-Dog was a nice guy and even though Merle was a complete douche to him, as well as everyone else, the fact that he was left for dead on that roof weighed heavy on his shoulders.

"You couldn't pick it up!" Daryl yelled at him.

"I dropped it down the drain." T-Dog explained. Daryl scoffed at his excuse, apparently not caring if it was true or not. He slowly got to his feet.

"That was supposed ta make me feel better it don't." He said as he threw a handful of dirt at T-dog's feet as he walked by him.

"Maybe this will." Daryl stopped and looked at the him, wanting to hear what he had to say, that could possibly make this fucked up situation any better. "I chained the door to the roof, so the geeks couldn't get at him, with a padlock." This piece of information, obviously didn't make Daryl feel any better, I thought as a pained look came over his face.

"That's gotta count for something." Said Rick. My heart broke as Daryl hung his head and wiped the sweat from his face, or were they tears. I couldn't tell, but I did know that he was hurting, judging by the way his voice broke. "Ta hell with all y'all! Just tell me where he is, so's I can go get 'em."

"He'll show you." Lori, who was standing by the RV, Spoke up. "Isn't that right?" She directed this last part at her husband. He simply stared at her for a moment. Everyone was silent, waiting to see what Rick would do. He looked away from Lori and looked around at everyone before nodding his head, agreeing to his wife's request.

"I'm going back."

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How was it? Did you like it? Did you hate it? Please let me know :)


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